Only Hope
by gidgetgirl
Summary: The Fang Gang discovers a four year old girl who needs a family and protection from her own destiny. COMPLETE!
1. Prologue

            The little girl shivered, wondering where her mommy was and why her daddy wasn't moving.  Her black hair hung in her face and she whimpered softly.  There were monsters, real monsters, not pretend like her babysitters had always promised.  The monsters she saw were real, and they were coming for her.  She gulped and made herself as small as possible.  Where was Mommy?

            The monster loomed near her, touching her black hair reverently with something that couldn't by any stretch of the imagination be called a hand.  Hopie cried, and a tongue came out of one of the monster's many mouths and licked the tear off her face.  Suddenly, she heard fighting, and closed her eyes tight, wishing to wake up in her own bed.  When she opened her eyes she saw a face that didn't look all grrrrr.  

            He was a boy, almost a man, but all she saw was humanity.  "Are you all right?"  he asked.  Sobbing, she held her arms out for him to pick her up.  He didn't move.

            "Connor," a voice that had to belong to a beautiful woman just because it was filled with that look-at-me-I'm-beautiful sound said.  "The poor thing is scared to death.  Pick her up."  Connor stared at Cordelia with a look that said "you have got to be kidding me crazy talker."  He awkwardly picked up the child.

            "She's a little girl not a spear," the woman chastened, "hold her with both hands."  The not-spear in question whimpered, burying her head in Connor's clothes and taking in his fight smell.  She felt safe, and fell asleep answering only one question.

            "What's your name, sweetie?" Cordelia asked the tired four year old, shielding her eyes from seeing the remains of her parents.  

            "Hopie," the little girl mumbled.  "They said I was their only hope."  And then she fell asleep.  


	2. little warrior

DISCLAIMER:  Joss owns it all, no infringement meant, watch Buffy and Angel to further enjoy story ideas.

Author's Note: The prologue takes place three nights before the rest of the story.  Hopie is living at the Hyperion with Angel, Connor, Cordelia, and Co.  There is no weird Connor/ Cordy relationship (can I even say ew?!)

            If there was one thing Cordelia Chase loved more than wrapping men around her little finger, it was shopping with money that someone else had given her as a result of aforementioned finger wrapping.  Shopping for Hopie was no exception.  The girl had hardly said a word in the three days since they had found her, except to ask polite questions.  She seemed bright for a child of her age, and Cordelia had to admit that everyone, including (and maybe especially Connor and Angel) were falling in love with the silent child.  

They still knew nothing about her parents, except that they were way no longer living, and that Hopie was an only child.  Since the demons had clearly been after the child, they hesitated to contact child services, and so Angel had called in a favor with a certain ex-evil-lawyer they all knew and did not love, and Hopie had been declared to be Cordelia's niece and therefore her charge.  

As it was, Aunt Cordy was rather enjoying watching the little girl's eyes go wide as she tried on clothes.  She was patient, and never said a word to contradict anything Cordelia suggested.  As much as she had a soft spot for the kid, Cordy was beginning to wonder if she had a personality at all.

"Hopie," she said, squatting to Hopie's level.  "You pick something out.  Anything.  Angel gave us his credit card."  Cordelia smiled wickedly.  Experience with the Powers that Be aside, she was still at least partially the same Cordelia clothes lover she had always been.  

Hopie walked straight to a white dress, simple with a whooshing skirt and no other frills.  "This," she said softly.  "This is mine."  Cordelia, somewhat impressed with the little girl's decisiveness looked at the dress.   The kid had taste.  After the purchases were made, the two girls walked through the mall towards the food court.

Cordelia, eying a dress that Angel would have wanted her to have, didn't notice when Hopie stopped.  When she looked down, the little girl was gone.  Great, she thought.  I've had the kid two hours without Angel or Connor fawning over her and I lost her.  Darn their male insistence on staying away from malls and daylight.  "Hopie," Cordelia called, never shy about letting her voice ring out.  "Hopie?  Hopie, sweetie, come to Aunt Cordy!"  In her mind's eye, she saw the girl standing in front of a window, two stories down.  With a silent thanks to the PTB for giving her a practical vision, she went to find Hopie, wondering how in the world the child had managed to get to the first floor so quickly.

When she found her, she was standing in front of a window, gazing longingly inside.  Cordelia followed the child's gaze and groaned.  Why couldn't she have just asked for a puppy?  She knelt down next to the child.

"You don't run off like that, Hopie," she said in what she hoped passed for a stern voice.  

Hopie nodded solemnly.  "Can I have it?" she asked.  Cordelia hated to say no, but luckily she was pseudo-impervious to precious little girl face.  

"We'll think about it, sweetie, but it looks a little dangerous.  I think you need something more for someone your age."  Hopie said nothing, and Cordelia wished that she would throw a temper tantrum, anything to suggest that the traumatic events of the past few days hadn't destroyed her will to live.  

Later that afternoon, Cordy passed a toy store, and, taking the orphan by the hand, led her to a display.  "How about this" she asked.

"Oh yes, pleases!"  The child practically bounced with joy.  Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief.  The plastic sword and crossbow set was much less intimidating than what Hopie had originally had in mind, plastic instead of sharp metal, and little girl sized instead of massive.  Cordelia wondered if Hopie's parents knew what a little fighter their girl was.  

Later that night, at the hotel, Cordelia wondered how she could have ever thought Hopie was a calm, or for that matter sane, child.  She ran through the halls, brandishing her sword in one hand in her crossbow in the other.  "I got you!" she cried joyously to Connor.  He smiled back at her.  

"I got you," he said back slyly, picking the little girl up.  Her giggles filled the air, and the rest of the gang couldn't help but laugh.  Hopie wasn't the only one learning how to be a child.  The Destroyer was coming in touch with his inner child.  Connor shrieked.  He was also coming in touch with Hopie's small, tickling fingers.  

Cordelia looked at Angel watching his son with a content expression on his face.  Content, she told herself, not happy.  Content was safe, and Cordelia allowed her mind to float to a place where Connor played with little brothers and sisters who looked like their mother, beautiful of course.

She felt tickling fingers reaching into her side.  She tried to fight back, but Angel pinned her to the ground.  "Help," she squealed as the supposedly souled vampire tickle-tortured her viciously.  In an instant, Hopie was by her side, the crossbow firmly pointed toward Angel's heart.  

"Uncle Angel," she said, very seriously, "I don't think Aunt Cordy likes that very much."  Angel kissed Cordelia on impulse.  Actually, thought Cordelia, Aunt Cordelia likes this very much.     


	3. playground protector

DISCLAIMER Joss owns not me.  

Chapter Two

            It was a beautiful day outside, Angel was sleeping, Connor was out, Cordelia was cooking lunch, and Hopie was in a bad mood.  Over the past months, she had become more and more like a little girl and less like a miniature adult, all quiet and serious like.  She had also started taking on the characteristics of her protectors.

            She loved dressing up like Cordelia, and Cordy loved seeing the little girl dressed fashionably, even if Hopie did tend to get clothes to a new level of dirtiness just by wearing them.  She was a fighter, like Connor, brutal and without mercy in every tickle war of epic proportions.  She babbled like Fred, acted cool like Gunn, and called people sweet cheeks like Lorne.  Unfortunately, she brooded like Angel.

            "Where's my Connor?" she demanded of Cordelia, in a voice that made Cordy wish it was nap time.  Unfortunately, Hopie kept odd hours because, living in the Hyperion, it was hard not to.  

            "He went out, sweetie," Cordy explained for the fourth time in twenty minutes.  "He'll be back later tonight."  Cordelia had to admit that Hopie was right, Connor's habit of taking off and not coming back until night time was vastly annoying, but she didn't want to concede that to the four year old currently standing with her arms crossed over her chest.

            "How about a picnic in the park before your doctor's appointment this afternoon?" Cordy asked.  Hopie made a face at the mention of the doctor's office, but she readily agreed to going to the park.  The two of them, Fred, and Gunn loaded the car with food and drove to the park.  They hadn't been there an hour when Fred and Gunn slipped off, leaving Cordy sitting on a park bench watching Hopie play with the other children.  

            "Your daughter's adorable," a voice came from beside her.  Cordy looked over and saw a tired looking woman.  "She's playing so nicely, not like my two," the woman tilted her head, indicating a set of carbon copy twins currently fighting over a swing.  Cordelia didn't bother to correct her.  At times, she could almost picture Hopie as her daughter.  She had the same long, dark hair that Cordelia had donned as a child, the same deep brown eyes.  

            "What's her name?" the woman asked.

            "Hopie," Cordy replied, distracted.  An older boy had just displaced the twins from their swing, and they were both crying.  Somehow their mother didn't notice, but Cordy was about to give the older child a piece of her mind when she saw Hopie doing it for her.

            "That wasn't very nice," Hopie said, looking the older boy, who was at least twice her size, straight in the eye.  He laughed at the solemn child.  The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the ground, and Hopie was standing above him.  "You should be nice to people who are smaller than you are," she said.  

            "You hurt me," he said.  She shook her head.

            "I helped you," she replied.  "To be nice."  Cordelia laughed, not bothering to wonder how Hopie had managed to throw the older boy to the ground.  She knew that Hopie wouldn't have hurt another child, even a very mean, very large little boy.

            "Five minutes, Hopie!" Cordy called out, figuring that it was a good thing to let your child know a little ahead of time that it was time to leave the fun for the not so fun.  In parts of her mind, it really wasn't at all hard to think of Hopie as hers.  At other times, it was difficult to think of the child as a child at all.  She'd be so obviously four one minute and adult and wise the next.  She was a protector.

            "Don't make me call your father!" she heard a woman from across the playground shout.  Cordy grimaced.  What kind of threat was that?  'Don't make me call your father,' had this person even heard of women's lib?  She looked at her watch.  They had just enough time to make it to the doctor's office ten minutes early for Hopie's checkup.  Cordy was almost as nervous as Hopie was.  What if something (anything) was wrong?  She cleared the thought from her mind.

            "Hopie," she called, "time to go."  She expected to see a little black haired fireball racing, or at the very least trudging, towards her.  What she saw was…nothing.  Well, of course she saw the twins playing with slash hitting each other and some kid she didn't know eating dirt, but she didn't see any Hopie.  Great, she thought, I've lost her again.  She waited for a convenient vision to emerge in her mind, and when nothing happened, she sighed and got up, thinking that she was going to have to get a leash for Hopie if she kept running off like that.

            "Hopie," she called again, unable to keep the worry from her voice.  The boy Hopie had removed from the swing earlier pointed towards the jungle gym on the other side of the playground, a massive piece of play equipment only meant for the older children.  Cordy should have known.  If there was one thing Hopie loved more than brandishing fake weapons, it was a physical challenge.  Definitely gonna have to think about the leash thing, thought Cordelia.

            She jogged across the playground until she stood directly underneath Hopie, who was sitting on the very peak of the jungle gym.  There were no other kids around.  "Time to go, sweetie," Cordelia said.  "And you have got to stop running off like that."

            "I'm sorry," Hopie said, and she sounded so sorry that Cordy instantly forgave her.

            "It's all right, baby, but we have to go now."  Hopie shook her head.

            "I'm sorry but we can't go," she clarified.  Cordelia narrowed her eyes a little bit, giving the little girl her patented do-you-really-want-to-go-there look.  Hopie apparently did want to go there.  "I'm not going to the doctor," she announced firmly.  

            "Yes, you are," Cordelia said nicely.  "Get down, now please," she continued.  Hopie shook her head.  Cordelia sighed.  She wondered if she had been this difficult of a child.  Then again, if Miss Cordelia had refused to go to the doctor, whichever maid or nanny was taking care of her would have canceled the appointment.  Cordy shook her head to clear the image from her mind.  Look where that got me, she thought.

            "Don't make me come up and get you Hopie-girl," she said.  Hopie didn't move.  Cordelia sighed and started climbing the jungle gym.  She felt just a little bit ridiculous, and she dreaded the talking to she'd have to give the little girl.  As much as she loved having the little one, she still wasn't sure about the whole parenty type thing.  By the time she reached the top, Hopie had wound her arms and legs so thoroughly through the gym that Cordelia couldn't get her loose.  

            "Hopie," she said, "this really isn't funny."  Hopie squeezed her eyes shut tight.  "Open your eyes," she commanded in a stern voice, looking at her watch and realizing that they were going to be late.  Hopie's eyes remained shut.  "Do you want me to call Angel?" Cordy asked, mentally cursing herself for stooping so low.  "You know he's asleep and will be very cranky if we wake him.  I don't think he would be very happy if he had to come all the way out here to get you to go to your doctor's appointment, do you?"

            "Aunt Cordy," Hopie said opening her eyes.  "It's daylight."  Cordy blinked.  "Uncle Angel's a vampire," Hopie explained as if her first words had been cryptic.

            "All the more reason he wouldn't be happy," Cordelia replied, rolling with the punches and ignoring the fact that Hopie had called her bluff.  She tried to pry the child's hands away from the bars, but to no avail.

            "Hope Chase Angel," she said, seriously annoyed, "you sit up right now."  Hopie blinked, and Cordelia realized that she had said out loud the name she had been calling Hopie in her mind for weeks.  Except then, it was Hopie Chase Angel.  The Hope part was because the little girl was in trouble.

            "My last name is Chase Angel now?" she asked, not letting go of her death grip.  "What's Chase?"  Cordelia explained that it was her last name, and Hopie nodded thoughtfully.

            "That's okay," she consented.  "I like Hopie Chase Angel."  Cordelia smiled.  "But I'm still not going to the doctor."  Cordelia frowned and tried to explain to the little girl that she didn't have a choice.  Unfortunately, based on the death grip she had on the jungle gym, she did.

            "Hopie sit up," a voice came from below them.  Cordelia looked down and saw Connor.  She breathed a sigh of relief.  Hopie sat up.  Cordelia picked her up before Hopie could change her mind.  She couldn't help looking a little disgruntled.  She had been practically begging the kid, and he showed up and boom, just like that, instant compliance.  Cordy climbed down, carrying Hopie with one hand.  Connor smirked.  Cordelia gave him the look and then turned her attention back to Hopie.

            "Tell me why you don't want to go to the doctor," she said, but Hopie just buried her head in Cordelia's shoulder.  Cordy sighed.  "We're going to have a long talk about this, Hope," she said, trying to impress upon the little girl that she wasn't happy.  Hopie lifted her head and reached out for Connor.  He easily took her from Cordy's arms.  

            "Were you bad?" he asked her.  She nodded, smiling.  Connor smiled back.  Cordelia informed Connor that he was coming with them to the doctor's office.

            "I really can't," he said, trying to explain, but she cut him off.

            "That's too bad," she replied, and Connor understood that his name was mud with Cordy for encouraging the little girl.  He nodded and carried Hopie to the car.  "And you can explain to Hopie why she's going to have a time out when we get home."  Connor looked confused, and Cordy wondered what Connor had been like when he was four.  Looking at him holding the child, she remembered the baby he had been and felt, not for the first time, that he was hers as well as the girl he held in his arms.  

            In her mind, she saw strongly the bond between the two of them, brother and sister, and she wondered if the image in her mind was in her imagination or if the Powers that Be had allowed one more gift, to see this bond.  She wondered what it meant.  If Connor was the Destroyer, the Miracle Child, who and what was Hopie?  

            Hopie's first words echoed in Cordelia's mind.  "My name is Hopie.  They said I was their only hope."  


	4. wolfram, hart, and Hopie

            "Angel," Cordy said, running her hand down his chest.  "I need a favor."

            "Sure," Angel said, purposefully not noticing that Cordy had him saying yes to a blind favor, something that was never a good thing to do, especially not with Cordelia.

            "Can you watch Hopie this afternoon?  I have to be elsewhere."

            "And by elsewhere you mean…"

            "Hair appointment and manicure."  Cordelia gave Angel a look that clearly said do-not-underestimate-the-power-of-the-hair-appointment.  Angel wisely took the advice.

            "Where's Connor?" he asked, thinking that his son wouldn't mind hanging out with Hopie for the afternoon.  

            "No," Cordelia said firmly.  "Connor needs some away time from the four year old wonder.  You, on the other hand, need some away time from your broody looking-at-books-sucks-too-bad-we-hate-Wesley time.  Hence, you should play with Hopie this afternoon."  Angel quickly agreed without bothering to remind Cordelia that Hopie was the reason he was going research crazy in the first place.  He hated to take time away from finding out what Cordelia's vision of Connor and Hopie had meant, but he saw that he clearly had no choice.  It wasn't as if he didn't like spending time with the kid.  She was adorable and loved him almost as much as she loved Connor, but not quite.  Hopie would have quite willingly jumped off a tall building for Connor.

            Moments later, Cordelia was out the door, and Angel was left alone with a groggy four year old who was mere minutes away from transitioning from sleepy head to energy marvel.  "Breakfast?" he asked Hopie, well aware that whatever their day's activities were, they would have to be indoors.

            She shook her head.  "I'm not hungry, Uncle Angel," she said.  He nodded.  Hopie rarely ate breakfast unless Cordelia forced her to.  Hopie was slowly learning that Cordelia in mother-mode was a force to be reckoned with.  Angel agreed with her.

            "You don't have to eat breakfast as long as we don't tell Cordy," he said, wanting to avoid the wrath of the mother bear.  Hopie nodded.  It was a game that they often played when Uncle Angel watched her.  "What do you want to do today?" he asked.  She shrugged, looking at him with wondering eyes.

            "What do the books say?" she asked quietly.  Angel looked at her, surprised.  For a four year old, she had an incredible attention span.  

            "Nothing so far," Angel replied, trying for the millionth time to remember what it was about Hopie that seemed familiar.  Of course, she looked like Cordelia a bit, and she was picking up her mannerisms, but there was something very different about Hopie.  Something he had seen somewhere before.  Unfortunately, having lived two hundred and fifty years, he was having trouble narrowing it down.

            "Hide and seek?" Angel asked, knowing that Hopie loved the game.  She nodded and immediately closed her eyes and started counting.  Angel crept stealthily away and tucked himself into the bathroom Cordy had designated as Hopie's.  It felt almost like having a family to have a child with the woman he loved.  Almost, but not quite.  Angel crouched behind the shower curtain, feeling a little ridiculous.  At least she hadn't asked to paint his nails this time (Cordelia's suggestion, of courses.  Darn her.)

            She found him almost immediately, and Angel felt silly like he always did that he hadn't picked a better hiding place.  "My turn now," she declared, tickling him in the ribs.  He giggled (yes giggled) and hoped that the kid remembered that any giggling was top secret and not to be repeated in story form.

            He counted, again feeling a little bit with the ridiculous with his hands over his eyes.  "You look ridiculous," a voice said from behind him.  He turned around slowly.  Lilah Morgan was standing in his hotel.  In his little girl's bathroom for that matter.  Angel struggled to keep off his game face.

            "What do you want?" he asked her.  "And you better hope that it's a good answer."

            "Coincidentally enough, Hope is exactly what I'm here to talk about," she replied, and Angel paled, quite an achievement for a vampire.

            "You stay away from her," he said in a low, dangerous voice.

            "Isn't it funny that Lindsey was so very obliging to help you and didn't even mention to you that we had been looking for the child for some time?"  Angel put his hand around Lilah's throat.  Now it was her turn to pale slightly.

            "Easy, violence-boy.  I'm not looking for the fight or to take the girl from you.  Yet.  Lindsey did a surprisingly good job with that little cover up of his.  Ironically, the girl does belong to your little Miss Look-At-My-Body.  I'm surprised he didn't let you know that to begin with.  Then again, Lindsey never really liked you.  Something about too much brooding and hair gel."  

            "What do you mean Hopie belongs to Cordelia?"  Angel wanted answers.  Lilah shrugged.  

            "It really is too bad you tried to kill Wesley," Lilah said glibly.  "He can be very helpful with the research, you know.  Among other things."  Angel growled, trying to ignore the Wesley scent he could smell all over Lilah's body.  Lilah screeched.  Angel looked to see Hopie standing behind her, holding her at sword point.  He smirked.  Lilah didn't know it was a plastic sword, dumb lawyer.

            "I don't think that's very nice," Hopie said quietly.  Lilah tried to move, but stopped at a look from Angel and some more prodding from Hopie's sword.  

            "Hopie," Angel said patiently, "could you please leave Lilah and me alone to talk."  Hopie shook her head.  

            "I don't want you to get all grrr on her," she explained.  "And I don't think Aunt Cordy would want her here.  She feels wrong."  Lilah took that statement as a compliment.

            "Hope," she said "would you like to come with me?"  Dumb question, Angel thought.

            "No," Hopie said, sounding for all of the world like an adult.  "I never will, you know."  Lilah groaned.  She needed the child's permission.  She couldn't take her unless she was willing.  It was part of her gift, and the fear the demons had managed to instill in the child was long gone, blocking that path to her compliance.  

            All of a sudden, the three of them heard crashing from downstairs.  "Your boys?" Angel asked Lilah.  She shook her head.  Unfortunately, all of the artillery in the world would do them no good in trying to take Hopie unless the child was willing to come.  Downstairs, Angel heard Fred scream.  He ran down the stairs, pulling Lilah after him.  Hopie followed.

            Twelve Gathrynic demons had Gunn, Fred, and Connor cornered, though Connor was doing a good job holding five of them off and Gunn and Fred each had two under control.  Angel grabbed a battle axe from the cabinet and went to work.  Lilah grabbed a weapon as well, though she was hopeless at using it.  Angel had just beheaded a demon when he noticed a demon going for Hopie.

            "Hopie, run!" Angel yelled to her.  She shook her head.  "Now," he roared in anger, swearing to kill the child once he got her out of this alive.  She seriously needed to learn how to listen.  Connor, noticing Hopie, finished off his last demon and headed for hers.  

            By the time he got there, the demon was dead, Hopie's sword, which Angel was stunned to see wasn't her plastic sword after all, thrust through his heart located just below his fourth stomach.  The little on turned and grabbed a cross bow from the weapons cabinet and killed one of the demons that was attacking Fred.  Everyone, including Cordelia who had just walked through the door, stared at the child.  Connor glared at her.

            "What did I tell you about these weapons, Hopie?"  He asked her angrily.  

            "Not to let Uncle Angel and Aunt Cordy know that you were teaching me?" she asked.  Cordelia and Angel both looked at Connor, surprised.

            "And…" Connor prompted.

            "Never to use them unless you tell me I can and to do what Uncle Angel tells me even if I want to use them."  Hopie dug her foot into the ground, looking very much so like a scolded four year old as opposed to the pint sized warrior they had just witnessed.

            "Give me the crossbow," Connor said.  Hopie complied.  "And next time, grab a weapon in each hand so you don't have to reload as often."  Hopie nodded, seriously.

            "Ice cream?" she asked him.  He nodded, a sucker for the cute little girl look.

            "Sure," he said, picking her up and leaving the room with the child in his arms. The others stayed put, shocked out of motion.  Lilah was the first to recover.  She laughed.  She would have a lot to report to the partners.  The child's physical powers were as expected and coming along quickly, and she knew Hopie's weak spot.  Connor.

            "You said she was part Cordy," Angel said, stopping Lilah from leaving.  Lilah nodded.  "I've never seen Cordy do that, no offense Cordy."

            "Cordy's not the only one who has a stake in that little one," Lilah replied.  "I'm surprised you don't recognize the others.  Miss Lovesick over there is only the most recent."  

            "Connor," Angel replied.  "And me."  He paused.

            "And?" Fred asked.

            "And Buffy," Angel replied, knowing that he had refused to see the signs of the slayer in the four year old.  The defiant tilt of the chin, the way she held the crossbow, the way she had known right away that he wasn't human.  She had parts of each of them, but how?  And why?  If the child was truly part of each of them, it was quite possible that the most powerful being that had ever lived was currently eating ice cream with his son, and, knowing Hopie, making a mess of it.

            Lilah left, Angel put his arm around Cordelia, and after kissing her, he went to make the phone call that Cordelia had somehow known was a long way in coming.  Cordelia went in to check on Connor and Hopie.

            They were in the midst of a food fight.  Cordy cleared her throat.  They looked at her sheepishly, the four year old and the teenager.  Everything seemed so normal.  Connor nudged Hopie.

            "I'm sorry about the cross bow and the sword," she mumbled quickly.  "Is Uncle Angel mad at me?"  Hopie's big brown eyes looked so innocent and sad that Cordelia knew that she couldn't stay mad at the child, who was, most of all, still a little girl.  She mentally cursed herself for having taught the child to make those innocent eyes.  She felt a pull of possession looking at the child and knowing that she really was hers.  She had never had anyone that was part of her before, and she knew deep down that Hopie was hers, that Lilah had been telling the truth.

            It stung more than anyone could know that she had to share the daughter of her heart and her essence with the one person with whom she already shared Angel's heart, his history.  She heard Angel hang up the phone.  The slayer was on her way to L.A.     


	5. Mr Spike plays Battle

DISCLAIMER Joss owns everyone except for Hopie.  She's mine, but if you'd like to borrow her, just ask.

DISTRIBUTION:  Want. Take. Have.  Just send me an email so that I can go check out your (probably really cool) site.

Autor's note:  Okay, some people were confused about Lindsey's role, so here it goes.  Lindsey is no longer at Wolfram and Hart, but Angel knows his location and called in a favor to get Hopie's custody papers.  Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing… let me know what (or who) you guys want to see/see more of, and I'll be happy to oblige!

Chapter 4: 

            "Breakfast?" Cordelia asked Connor.  He looked at her impishly, an endearing look on him and one they'd seen more often in the months since Hopie had become a part of their lives.

            "Is that a question?" he asked her.  Cordelia shook her head and laughed.  

            "Not really," she said, glad that she had Connor to take her mind off of the impending disaster that was the Scooby Gang's visit to LA.  She'd already prepared rooms in the hotel for all of them, not feeling a bit guilty when she put Buffy in the room furthest from the room she was sharing with Angel, and hence furthest from Hopie's room, and for that matter, Connor's.

            "So what's this girl like?" Connor asked, taking a bite of the pancakes Cordelia had made.  Cordelia looked at him quizzically, thinking that that wasn't a very Connor-type question.  He had after all, used the word girl in the same sentence as a question mark without the words demon or attacked anywhere close by.

            "She's a little high strung," Cordelia said, "and small, but very powerful."  Somehow Cordelia couldn't let it go at that.  "She's loyal, and she saved my life about a million times even though she never liked me."

            "And then there's Willow an' Xander an' Giles-who-wears-tweed and Anya and Dawn-who's-Connor's-age, right Aunt Cordy?"  Hopie had entered the kitchen.  Cordelia took a deep breath.

            "That's right, Hopie.  And don't forget Spike.  Buffy told Angel that Spike was coming, something about him having a soul now and not being the biggest bast- uh, blood sucking fiend on earth."  Hopie nodded thoughtfully.

            "Will they want to play battle?" she asked hopefully, knowing that everyone in the Hyperion except for Connor was tired of playing with her plastic sword and crossbow.  Aunt Cordy had given up before the last battle had even started because her nails were drying.  Hopie looked longingly toward the foyer where the real weapons were.

            "No big kid weapons," Cordelia said quickly, following the child's gaze.  She gave Cordy a pathetic look, and Cordy amended the statement.  "Unless you ask Angel AND me, not just one of us, first."  Hopie nodded, satisfied enough that she didn't point out that Connor always got to play with the big kid weapons without asking first.  She bounced in her chair, and Cordy didn't even bother to tell her to put her feet on the floor.  

            "Let's get you dressed," she said to Hopie when the child had finished her pancakes.  Connor crept quietly out the side door, knowing that Hopie would want to come if he told her he was going for a quick patrol.  Something about taking a four year old demon hunting bothered Cordelia and Angel, even though it didn't really bother Connor.  He had been hunting demons at that age, but he had to admit that Hopie was better.  Then again, if Wolfram and Hart (via Lilah) was to be believed, Hopie was part slayer, part seer, part vampire-with-a-soul, and part Miracle Child, with none of their individual weaknesses.  

            At that moment, the little miracle was doing her best Cordelia impression.  "A dress today, Aunt Cordy?" she had asked sweetly.  Cordy pulled out the white dress Hopie had picked out at their first mall excursion, but she shook her head.  The child had refused to wear it every time Cordy had asked.  Cordelia sighed, pulling out an adorable yellow dress with daisies and Hopie cocked her head to the side, mimicking Cordelia's own what-should-I-wear posture.   Finally she nodded, and insisted that Cordelia leave so that she could dress herself.  Cordelia agreed because she heard the front door to the Hyperion open and a familiar voice yell hello.

            "I'll be back up in five minutes," Cordy told the little one.  Hopie nodded, excited beyond words at the prospect of new playmates.  Cordelia raced down the stairs in time to see Angel and Buffy embracing.  Of course, she thought, he still loves her.  Angel shot Cordelia a look at that instant, the intimate kind of look that shouts I-love-you with sixty-five exclamation points.  Buffy saw it and shot Cordelia a small smile of her own.  Cordelia understood then, at least as much as she could understand.  They still loved each other, always would in a love that was eternal and strong, but the romance, the tension, the thrill, and the deep sense of longing-caring-loving was hers now.  Angel was hers now, even if Buffy would always have a part of his heart, a part of his soul.

            "Hey Cordelia," Xander said, and Cordy nodded at him and at Anya, who was standing slightly behind him to the left.  Dawn, Buffy's younger sister of whom Cordelia had fond false memories, ran to give her a hug, and Willow followed suit, surprising Cordelia with the restraint in her step: not timidness, simple restraint of incredible power.  Cordy wasn't too impressed.  Unlike when she had left Sunnydale, Cordy was all chosen like too… maybe not THE chosen one, but important none-the-less.

            "Hello, Cordelia," Giles said, sounding very British.

            "Hi…" Cordelia was cut off by a little energy ball before she could get his name out of her mouth.

"Giles!" Hopie shrieked.  "That's Giles, right Aunt Cordy?"  Cordelia nodded.  "You wear tweed," Hopie informed Giles.  

"Why, yes I do," he said, taking a good look at the cherubic power force in front of him.  If she was anywhere near what he thought she might be, she was more important than anyone could possibly have guessed.  Cordelia blushed at the tweed reference.  Dawn crouched down next to Hopie.

"Hi, I'm Dawn," she said, already in love with the little girl who would serve as a reminder to everyone that she wasn't a baby.  

"You're Connor's age and Buffy's sister and you used to be a Key and you were always nice to Aunt Cordy and do you want to play with me?" Hopie said, all in one breath.  Everyone laughed.

"Goodness," said Anya, "the very small person talks more than I do."  Everyone looked at Anya.  "How do you feel about money?" Anya asked the little girl.  Hopie shrugged.

"It's good?" she said, unsure how to respond.  Anya beamed at her, already planning a bedtime story about the glories of capitalism and the evils of small fuzzy bunny rabbits.  

"What would you like to play?" Dawn asked Hopie.

"Have you ever played battle?" Everyone looked at the little girl, bemused.  They hadn't seen yet what she could do.

"What have you been teaching this kid, Angel?" Xander asked, resisting the impulse to call him dead boy.

"Uncle Angel doesn't want me to do real battles," Hopie said sadly, shooting him baby girl eyes.  Angel groaned.  Spike laughed.

"Hello, Uncle Angel," he said sarcastically.  

"Does Spike want to play too?" Hopie asked, already taking a shining to the vampire because he had weird colored hair.  Spike nodded.  

"Sure, half-bit," he replied.  Hopie giggled.  Before Spike could so much as lean towards Buffy, the aforementioned half-bit had dragged him and Dawn out of the room in search of battle weapons.

"No big kid weapons," Angel and Cordelia yelled after her at the same time.  They heard a very melodramatic sigh that told them that Hopie had heard.

"Just a crossbow?" she asked, pleadingly.

"No!" shouted back Angel, Cordy, and Buffy, who was a little worried about Spike playing around anything sharp and wooden.  

"She's a very taking little girl," Giles said, again with the Britishness.  Cordy beamed.  Secretly, she was glad that Hopie hadn't given Buffy the time of day, not that Cordelia wanted to keep the girl entirely away from her.  "What do you know about her?  Buffy filled us in, but why don't you tell the story one more time, starting with the night you found Hope."

"Hopie," Angel and Cordelia corrected at once.  

"Unless she's in trouble," Angel clarified sheepishly.  Everyone nodded.  Angel retold the story.  Buffy smiled to herself when he got to the part about her having a stake in Hopie.  No wonder the kid had such kick ass tendencies, she thought.  

"Well," Giles said, "if I'm not mistaken, your Hopie might be a Cosmolotite."  Everyone looked at Giles.  "A person who can embody the essence of another for a short period of time," he said.  "In the middle ages, when the last Cosmolotite incident was recorded, they were used to house demonic powers until the child, or bearer as they called them, could be sold to the highest bidder."  

Angel shook his head.  "I don't know if Hopie has our powers exactly, and Cosmolotites could never house the essence of more than one person.  Hopie has slayer tendencies, that much is clear, and Cordelia and I can see ourselves in the child as easily as if she were our own, but how can she possibly be housing all of our essences or even our powers for that matter if we have them now?"  

"That's a good question," Xander said, sticking his two cents in.  "To which I am completely underqualified to give an answer."

"She likes money," Anya put in helpfully.

"Buffy," Willow said.  "She's the reason I was able to bring you back."  Everyone stared at the quiet Wicca.  "I didn't even know it until I saw her, felt you in her, but she's the reason I could bring you back and I couldn't bring Tara back.  She held your essence, your heart.  She has the heart of a slayer, you-slayer, and because she does, my spell worked."

The wheels in Angel's head started turning, so quickly he couldn't keep pace when they heard a shout from the other room.  

"Bloody hell!" Spike screamed, alarmed.  Everyone ran into the other room, expecting to see the demon of the day.  Instead, they saw Spike tied tightly to a chair, Hopie clapping her hands joyously and Dawn laughing beside her.

"Hopie," Cordelia started, trying not to laugh at the self-declared Big Bad's helplessness against her baby.  

"Dawnie told me to," Hopie said quickly.

"I did not," Dawn said.  "Well, not exactly anyway."  Dawn sounded a little sheepish.  "I just told her about the time when he was tied up in Giles's bathroom is all, and she wanted to see if she could do it, too."

"You didn't say no rope," Hopie told Angel and Cordelia seriously.  They both laughed.  

"You bloody gits think this is funny?" Spike growled.  "Get me out of here before the half-bit there decides that staking Mr. Spike would be fun."

"Oh no, Mr. Spike," said Hopie seriously.  "I would never stake you.  You feel all good, like Uncle Angel and Aunt Cordy and Lorne and Miss Buffy too!"  Buffy raised her eyebrows.  Why couldn't she be just plain Buffy instead of Miss Buffy?  Even Aunt Buffy would have been better.  Still, she felt a pull at her heart towards the child, who was standing in the same casual battle ready stance she had stood in since she was fifteen.  She looked at Dawn and felt awe that twice she had contributed to a miracle, twice created another person.  "Besides," Hopie said, wrinkling her nose.  "Vampire dust is yucky, and it gets in my nose and makes me sneeze.  Hi Connor!"  

Everyone turned to look at Connor who was making be-quiet-before-you-say-too-much motions at Hopie.  He stared at all of them, a mysterious and slightly broody look on his face.

"Whoa," said Xander, "check out Angel Junior."

"Connor," Angel, Cordelia, and Connor all corrected.

"My Connor," Hopie clarified, staking her claim where everyone could hear it.  She gave Xander a very pointed look.  He nodded.

"Connor," he conceded.  At Hopie's insistent glare he added, "Your Connor."  

"Hopie, sweetie," Buffy said, "when is your birthday?"  She had a feeling in the put of her stomach.  Angel had one as well.

"I'll be five on May Seventeenth," Hopie responded proudly.  Angel nodded, his suspicion confirmed.  Buffy paled visibly.  Everyone else was confused.

"What?" asked Cordelia, wanting desperately to catch the drift even while she was imagining some awesome party plans for Hopie's fifth birthday.

"Exactly five years ago on May Seventeenth," Angel started.

"I sent Angel to hell," Buffy finished his sentence softly.       


	6. Karaoke and Temper Tantrums

DISCLAIMER:  Joss owns everyone except for Hopie… she's mine, but if you'd like to use her just drop me an email and feel free to borrow her for a little while.

DISTRIBUTION: Want. Let me know, then Take, have.

Chapter 5

Everyone stared at Buffy when the words came out of her mouth.

            "Uncle Angel," Hopie said, breaking the silence, "What was it like in Hell?  Was it hot?"  Connor's eyes darkened as the mention of a hell dimension hit a little too close to home.  

            "At times," Angel replied, and even the four year old was able to ascertain that further questioning along those lines would make Uncle Angel go all broody on the inside and all grrr on the outside.  Hopie closed her mouth, shifting her weight restlessly from one foot to another.  She was ready for another game of battle with Mr. Spike, who everyone had forgotten was still tied to the chair.  Silly vampire, Hopie thought.

            Giles rubbed his chin.  "So if Hopie was born in the exact instant when you sent Angel to hell," Giles mused, "then maybe she somehow obtained his essence as he left this plane, but that still doesn't explain why she still has it, or yours or Cordelia's for that matter, or Connor's."  At a look from Hopie, Giles sighed.  "Your Connor," he told the little girl.  To Buffy he sounded very much like he always had when she'd made him exasperated with her teenage antics.  Buffy decided that that wasn't very flattering.

            "Uh, not meaning to sound stupid here, but how do we know she's part Cordelia or Connor?"  Xander voiced the question Cordelia had been anticipating him asking.  She was a bit miffed, but not surprised.

            Hopie stared at Xander.  "Maybe you shouldn't talk," she said seriously.  Everyone laughed.

            "She's definitely part Cordelia," Xander said, just as Cordelia told Hopie to apologize to Xander.  His eyes flew open when he realized that Cordy had changed, at least in some ways.

            "Sorry," Hopie mumbled, but it was clear from the look on her face that she stood by her Xander-in-silence opinion.

            "Oh how funny," Anya said.  "The little child thinks that Xander is not bright!"  Anya smiled.  "And she likes money," she reiterated for the third time, smiling.  

            "Excuse me, hate to interrupt this fun fest, but could someone bloody well UNTIE ME?!"  Hopie sighed and untied Mr. Spike.

            "You can talk," she told him sweetly after the last ropes where on the floor.  

            "Thanks, half-bit," Spike said, amused despite himself that she was letting him talk and not the whelp.  He almost smiled until he saw the way that Angel's son was looking at Dawn.  Spike shuddered.  Bitty-Buffy and Angel Junior, now that was a horrifying thought.  Dawn played with the ends of her hair.  Spike groaned, immediately recognizing her patented flirty motion.

            Cordelia stared blankly into space for a few moments, and only Connor and Angel realized that she was having a vision.  Spike noticed the half-bit mimicking Cordy, and he smiled despite himself.  

            "What did you see?" Angel asked.  

            "A girl," Cordelia replied, "about nineteen, brown hair, being attacked by a scaly freaky demon."

            As opposed to those non-freaky scaly demons, Xander though, but he didn't say it out loud.

            "Park Street," Cordelia continued.  "Next to the…" the vision started blanking out.  "I want to say next to the candy store."

            "Ice Cream Parlor," Hopie corrected in a sing song voice.  No one looked at her.  

            Gunn, Fred, and Lorne walked into the room in time to hear the tale end of Cordy's vision.  "We're on it," Gunn said.

            "Speak for yourself," said Lorne.  "I'm keeping my beautiful green self right here in the hotel."

            "I'll go," volunteered Xander, anxious to redeem himself.  

            "Me too," said Connor.

            "I'm in," said Dawn, looking at Connor.  He smiled at her.

            "If you're going, maybe I should go," Buffy said to Dawn.  Hopie shook her head.

            "It's just a little demon," she said.  "By the ice cream store."  Everyone ignored the child.

            "I wanna go!" Hopie declared.  

            "No," every single person in the room except for Spike said at once.  

            Hopie crossed her hands over her chest stubbornly.  "I wanna go, and it's not a big demon, and how come Dawn gets to go and I don't and IT'S AN ICE CREAM PARLOR!"  Hopie stamped her foot, on the verge of a tantrum.

            "She's right," Cordelia realized.  "It is an ice cream parlor."  She looked at Hopie.  "Honey, how did you know that?"

            "I saw it, can I go pleeeeeease?" Hopie asked.  Cordelia shot Xander a triumphant look.  Hopie had her visions, so there.  

            "I'll go and watch out for the Bit and the Half-Bit," Spike volunteered.  Hopie looked at him like he was a god among men, er, vampires.  

            Cordelia shook her head.  "Wn need you here, Hopie," she explained.  "I think you should sing a song for Lorne."  Hopie, seeing the resolve look on Cordy's face, pouted, not saying a word.

            "Be back in a little while, Hopie," Connor said, giving her a hug.  She wouldn't look at him, angry that he was leaving her to go with Dawn, but she returned the hug anyway because he was her Connor.

            Connor, Gunn, Dawn, Spike, and Xander left the others with a very cranky, very powerful little girl who most definitely was NOT going to sing for Lorne, no matter how much they tried to convince her to.

            "Come on, baby girl, sing a song for your buddy Lorne," Lorne said, flashing the little girl a thousand watt smile.

            "No," Hopie said, a mutinous look on her face.  Cordelia and Angel recognized the look.  They both groaned out loud.

            Giles squatted down to the little girl's level.  "You want to help fight the bad guys, don't you Hopie?"  Hopie nodded, her upper lip jutting out.  "Well, we need you to sing so that we can fight them," Giles said, shooting the others a see-how-adults-handle-things look.

            "Why don't YOU sing," Hopie said grumpily, "and I'll fight the demons."  Cordelia tried very hard not to laugh as Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt.

            Buffy decided to give it a try.  "Aunt Cordy and Uncle Angel will sing if you will," she said, volunteering the others.  Now it was Willow's turn to try not to laugh.  Hopie looked very thoughtful.  

            "Will you?" she asked Buffy cautiously.

            "Will I what?" Buffy returned.

            "Sing," Hopie said stubbornly.  "You have to sing too, AND play battle with me AND let me go out with you tonight to fight with the big kid weapons."

            "Hope," Angel warned in a low voice, letting the child know she was pushing the line.  

            "What?" Hopie mumbled, her hands still crossed firmly over her chest.  Angel narrowed his eyes at her.  She ignored him.

            "Deal," Buffy said.  Giles raised his eyebrows at her.  

            "What?" Buffy mumbled, crossing her hands over her chest.

            Lorne took a deep breath.  He'd heard Angel and Cordy sing before, and he'd heard tell of the slayer's song debut from a fellow named Sweet in Las Vegas.  This was going to be something.  Not something musical, granted, but _something nonetheless.   "What song, my little dumplings?" he asked.  All three of them glared at him.  They huddled briefly._

            Buffy stuck her head out of the huddle.  "We need a fourth," she said, looking at Willow and Giles.

            "No way," said  Willow, "you know how scared I am of singing in front of people.  If I get that scared, for all I know something might just go Kaboom and then Poof… and that would be bad."

            "KABOOM!" yelled Hopie, already in a much better mood.

            "Indoor voice, Hopie," reminded Cordelia.

            "Poof," Hopie said in her indoor voice.  

            Buffy looked pleadingly at Giles.  "Bloody hell, all right."  The four of them huddled and Giles made an indignant snort when he heard their choice of songs.  Moments later, Hopie was clapping her hands with joy while Buffy, Angel, Cordelia, and Giles sang the Spice Girls.  Willow's mouth dropped open, and she couldn't for her life shut it.  Lorne looked appalled.

            "If you wanna be my lover," Buffy sang, "you've got to get with my friends."  She looked at Angel.  Already done, she thought ironically.

            "Make it last forever 'cause friendship never ends," Giles belted out in a surprisingly good voice.

               Cordy looked at Angel.  "If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give."  Angel returned her look.

            "Taking is to easy and that's the way it i-is," he replied.  

            "Enough!" Lorne cried screaming.  "For the love of all things good and nice and fluffy stop this madness!"  They all stopped singing.  For a moment there was complete silence.  Lorne tried to clear all of the emotions out of his head.  What a group, he thought.  

            "Your turn, Hopie," Willow said softly, giggling all the while.  Wait until she told Xander.  Anya looked confused.  Hopie nodded.  She could sing better than that, she thought.

            She sang a song her mom had taught her when she was little.

            _Somewhere, out there_

_            Under the big blue sky_

_            Someone's thinking of me…_

Her little voice trembled a little with thoughts of her mommy and daddy.  She finished the song.  Tears filled Cordelia's eyes as she thought about Hopie's real parents, so very far away from their little girl, forever.  Angel sniffled too.  Buffy thought about Joyce, and Anya thought that the small money-liking person was very cute, in a friendly (not fuzzy-bunny) type of way.  Lorne sat silent for the longest time.

            "This is good," he said.  "Wow."  He paused for dramatic effect, making everyone groan.  "Hopie's not a Cosmolotite," he said finally.  'She's sort of the cosmic equivalent of a Xerox machine."  

            "Uh, no offense," Buffy said to the demon, "but what in the world are you talking about?"  

            "Well, from what I got from that beautiful little song there, it all started with The Powers that Were."  Everyone looked even more confused.

            "The Powers that Were?" Cordy asked.  He nodded.

            "Before The Powers that Be," Lorne explained, "there were The Powers that Were.  This is before good, before evil, before it all.  When The Powers that Were started losing ground to the Powers that Be and the forces of evil, they did the only thing they could think of to safe guard against the ultimate power struggle between good and evil.  They set loose all of their magic in the form of a single energy that would come to life at the dawn of the age of the apocalypse.  A magic that could do what even The Powers that Be cannot: duplicate an essence, a destiny.

            "See, Those Powers that Were were pretty smart.  They figured it would get to be a pretty dangerous game between good and evil at the end, so they let their magic flow into one giant cosmic rule.  No major player in the apocalypse could be completely removed to another dimension before playing his or her role.  

            "The magic, Hopie's magic, senses the person leaving and copies their essence, storing it in her own body.  The Powers that Were didn't foresee you guys returning from the alternate planes.  Hopie was supposed to take your spots.  Then again, they probably didn't foresee it happening more than once either."  

            "What happening more than once?" Anya asked, not quite seeing the big picture.

            "Crossing into and out of another realm," Giles replied.  "Angel went to hell and back, Buffy to heaven, Connor to a hell dimension, and Cordy to…" Giles shot Cordy a questioning look.

            "Also heaven," she clarified, "on business."  

            "So that little Xerox machine tied to Hopie's soul worked overtime, copying your essences, your souls, and most of all your destinies into her own."  The enormity of the situation hit them.  Hopie was a soul/destiny Kinko's, open twenty-four hours a day.  Cordy looked at her.  She was bouncing on one foot, singing softly to herself the Spice Girls song she had just heard her friends and family singing.

            "Time to play?" Hopie asked, wheedling.  She gave Buffy some very cute little girl eyes.  Buffy shrugged.  She could see the greedy research lust in Giles's eyes, and this way she wouldn't have to hit the books.

            "Sure, kiddo," she replied.

            "Aunt Cordy?" Hopie asked.  Cordy shook her head, glad that Buffy was here.  She was feeling way to overwhelmed to wage a pretend war with Hopie.

            "Do you want to spar?" Buffy asked.

            "What's spar?" asked Hopie.  Buffy told her.  Hopie was giddy.

            "Spar, spar, spar, spar…" she ran off singing.  Buffy followed her, and the others watched them go: the slayer and the…

            "Does she have a name?" Angel asked.  "A title," he clarified.  

            "As a matter of fact," Lorne replied, "The Powers that Were referred to their magic as Shanshu-Itzca."

            "Shanshu?" asked Angel, looking towards the spot where Hopie had stood a minute before.  Everyone stood, for what seemed like the millionth time that day, in absolute silence.

Author's note: sorry about the little Spice Girls scene… I couldn't help myself… more of the story coming soon.  Let me know who and what you want to see, and I'll see what I can do!  


	7. Sparring and sleeping

DISCLAIMER: Joss owns the Scooby and Fang Gangs, Sunnydale, and the lore of the buffyverse.  I own Hopie, but I'm willing to share.

Author's Note:  What do you guys think… is it time for Angel to get all with the Shanshu?  What other characters would you like to see? (I'm working on the Lindsey thing, Imzadi)  Please take the time to drop me a review.  If you guys have special requests let me know.

Only Hope: Chapter Six

            Dawn looked at Connor, thinking that he looked absolutely nothing like Angel, for which she was immensely grateful.  Not that Angel didn't have that broody good looks thing down, but that was Buffy's domain.  Connor was hers, at least she thought that he might be.  He had been very impressed with the way she had held her cool with the freaky scaly demon.  Absolutely no screaming, except for one tiny incident involving some unfortunately gooey and poisonous demon spit.  Thoughts of how cute Connor would look with his shirt off pushed the memory out of her mind.  

            As they approached the hotel, Dawn inched closer to Angel's son.  He looked at her and smiled almost shyly.  She was about to return the smile when a small dark haired energy ball hurled itself at Connor, disrupting her daydreams.

            "You were gone a long time," Hopie said in an accusing voice.  "Was it a big demon?  It looked small when I saw it with Aunt Cordy in the vision thingy.  Did you use a crossbow or a glaive or what?"  The little girl looked at Connor with stars in her eyes.  

            "Were you good while I was gone?" Connor asked, looking the little girl in the eye.

            "Maybe," Hopie replied, skirting the question.  "Buffy and me sparred.  Wanna spar Connor?"

            "You and Buffy sparred?" Dawn asked, surprised.  Hopie nodded.  Dawn had trouble imagining her sister exchanging blows with a four year old.  She smiled at the thought, only a little irritated that it had taken her years to talk Buffy into training her and here this little girl was, training within an hour of meeting her.

            "Did you win?" Connor asked.  Dawn looked at him, surprised.  He was serious.

            "Nope," Hopie said.  "But I made her fall down once.  I'm not used to playing spar.  In battle, I have weapons, in spar it's just me."  

            "Did you sing for Lorne?" Connor asked, glad that he hadn't had to deal with Hopie in a bad mood.  Hopie nodded.  

            "It was much prettier than Aunt Cordy and Uncle Angel and Mr. Giles and Buffy.  They sang too."  Connor tried not to laugh.  Dawn pictured Angel singing and lost her composure and her irritation at the little girl's interruption.

            While Hopie was interrupting that little interlude, the most unlikely of alliances were forming in the lobby of the Hyperion.  

            "That dress is to die for, sweetcakes," Lorne told Anya.  She smiled at him.  

            "Thank you.  I bought it, exchanging money for goods in the American ritual of capitalistic exchange."  Anya smiled brightly.

            "Tell me about it," Lorne said.  "Clothes can cost a pretty penny."

            "I don't like pennies," Anya commented crossly.  "They are small and irritating and worth practically nothing.  The paper money is much more valuable."  

            "Aren't you adorable when you're an economaniac?" Lorne asked, laughing.  Anya laughed.  

            "Any chance you'd like to sing a little song for me?" Lorne snuck the question in after lulling Anya into a false sense of money laden security.  Anya shook her head.  She had too much going on in her mind to let Lorne in on her troubles.  Although she had accepted help from her friends, she was still holding to some semblance of independent control over her emotions, and that rather precluded belting out a breakaway pop hit for the Karaoke reader.

            Angel and Giles were elbow deep in books, although Angel was avoiding any actual reading in favor of thinking about everything they had learned.  Hopie was the essence of Shanshu-Itzca.  Hopie was his Shanshu.  If the prophesies were to be believed, she would give him his humanity.  With humanity, he could have a real family, a real life, a real lover.  

            Buffy and Cordelia were bonding over a bowl of Chex Mix.  "So are you and Spike, you know?" asked Cordelia, not bothering with tact because Buffy wouldn't expect it from her.

            "We were," Buffy replied.  "And I care for him still, and now he has a soul and all, but I don't know."  Cordelia nodded as if Buffy were actually making sense.  

            "Hopie's incredible," Buffy said, changing the subject before she asked the question she really didn't want the answer to.  "She's a fighter.  I'm going to have a couple of bruises tomorrow."

            "I'm sorry," Cordelia apologized for the child.  "We're trying to teach her to be gentle, but she gets excited when someone strong plays with her.  Angel's gotten the rough side of a couple of games of battle, too."  Cordelia smiled proudly, thinking of Hopie as her own personal miracle.  Her essence may have been the last to be copied into Hopie's, but she was the first to mother the child after she lost her family.  She was giving the child what she herself had never had growing up, a family, and that was a miracle in her books.

            "You're great with her," Buffy conceded.  "I'm not sure I could be so patient.  Then again, I don't guess you have much of a choice."  Buffy couldn't imagine raising a child like Hopie.  Talk about high energy parenting.

            "Speaking of Hopie, where is she?" Cordy wondered out loud.  She had gotten used to keeping track of the child, but she inevitably slipped through her fingers occasionally, what with her leash-needing tendencies and all.

            Willow sat on the front steps of the Hyperion with Fred, talking physics with the girl.  Moments earlier, they had seen Hopie dart down the front steps, barreling towards the street.  

            Fred had put out her arms to stop the little girl.  "Where are you going, honey?" she had asked.  

            "Connor's coming," Hopie had said, squirming gently.  She had to be gentle with Fred, who wasn't strong like Buffy or Connor.  Fred had looked, anxious to see Gunn.  She let go of Hopie's arms.  

            Sure enough, the demon control group had been heading around the corner.  Fred and Hopie had gone to meet them, and Willow had been left sitting alone on the steps.  She thought silently about the power the little girl possessed.  If anything, the past year had taught her that power of that kind came with a price.  The idea that the responsibility sat on the shoulders of a four year old who, though remarkably well behaved for the most part, was still a child prone to temper, scared her.  She got up and went to help the others with the research.  

            Hopie did an imitation of Angel singing for Dawn and Connor, still a little unsure of how much she liked sharing Connor with another girl, but enjoying the attention nonetheless.  They laughed.  Connor shared a special look with Dawn.  Hopie frowned.  That wasn't right.  He was her Connor, not Dawn's.  Dawn returned Connor's gaze over Hopie's head.

            "I'm Shanshu," Hopie said, wishing for some more attention.  Connor looked at the little girl closely.  He was familiar with the prophesy.  Was it possible that the child would make Angel somehow human?  He shook his head at the thought.  Angel was a vampire, case closed.  

            Dawn wasn't quite as impressed, and the rest of the group had already entered the hotel.  "Connor," Hopie said.  "You tore your shirt again.  Aunt Cordy's gonna be mad."  Hopie giggled.  Connor looked down at the shirt.  Darn, he thought.  Cordelia wasn't much with the demons-tore-my-clothing-excuse, especially the fourth time it was used in one week.  "Can't you kill them before they mess up your clothes?" she always asked.  He groaned out loud and went to change, leaving Hopie alone with Dawn as she had known he would.

            "Do you want to spar?" Hopie asked Dawn.  "Pleeeeease."  She batted her eyelashes.  Dawn laughed.  The little girl was adorable, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't see her as a threat.  She was, after all, only four years old.  

            "Okay," Dawn said.  "Where do you want to spar?"  Hopie grinned, looking like someone had just promised her ice cream.  She grabbed Dawn's hand and dragged her around to the back of the Hyperion excitedly.  It was still daylight outside, but the sun was getting ready to set.  Hopie stood in her ready stance, smiling wickedly at Dawn.  Dawn returned the smile weakly.

            "You start, Dawnie," Hopie instructed, sounding eerily like Buffy.  Dawn nodded and, feeling incredibly ridiculous, moved her left hand slowly toward the little girl.  She blinked slowly when she realized that Hopie wasn't standing where she had been standing a moment before.  Dawn moved her hand toward the child more quickly, but Hopie again dodged the blow.  She was fast, and so small that Dawn was having trouble sparring with her without bending over.

            Hopie was getting ready to lash out with her right leg when she heard Aunt Cordy calling her name.  "Outside," Hopie yelled, knowing that Aunt Cordy would be grumpy if she didn't respond.  

            "What are you doing?" Cordy called.

            "Nothing," Hopie responded sweetly.  Cordelia knew what that meant.

            "Hopie," she said in a warning tone.

            "Just sparring with Dawnie," Hopie yelled back.  Instantly, Buffy and Cordelia were in the courtyard with Hopie and Dawn.  Buffy looked at Dawn.

            "Are you all right?" she asked.  Dawn nodded, mystified.  

            "I'm fine," she replied laughingly.

            "I'm being gentle," Hopie said in her sweet baby girl voice.  Cordelia knew better than to trust that voice.  Hopie wouldn't seriously hurt Dawn, but if she was in enough of a snit about something, she might make things a bit uncomfortable for the older girl.  Cordelia was puzzled.  Why was Hopie sparring with Dawn?  She barely knew the girl.

            "I can take care of myself," Dawn said.  "Especially with a four year old little girl."  

            Connor entered the courtyard, and Dawn looked at him longingly.  Oh, thought Cordy.  That explained everything.  Hopie was just staking her claim to Connor.  Connor smiled at Dawn until he noticed Hopie's ready stance.

            "What are you guys doing?" he asked.

            "Nothing," Hopie replied.

            "Sparring," Dawn replied.  Connor's eyes opened widely.

            "I don't think that's a very good idea," he said, shooting Hopie an irritated look.

            "I wasn't going to hurt her or nothing," Hopie said darkly.  Connor narrowed his eyes at her.

            "You want to spar, I'll spar with you," he said.  Hopie looked at him closely to see if he was really irritated with her.  She couldn't tell.  

            "Okay," she said.  "You might want to back away a little," she said to Dawn politely.    Connor flew at Hopie, and Dawn gasped.  He was surely going to hurt the very little girl.  Hopie dodged his blows and returned them, punch for punch, kick for kick.  The two had been going at it for a full five minutes when Hopie made her first mistake.  She lashed out with a high kick, which for her reached the middle of Connor's stomach.  He grabbed her foot.  She looked at him with scared little girl eyes, but he knew that she was faking it.  His Hopie wasn't scared of much and certainly not of him.

            "While I've got your attention," he said conversationally, "what's the rule about playing battle with someone weaker than you?"

            "Hey!" said Dawn.

            "We were playing spar," Hopie said, squirting the question, "and I wasn't going to hurt her.  Really, I wasn't."  

            Connor stared at her.  Hopie sighed a very adult sigh.  "I'm not supposed to spar or play battle without telling you first and I have to be nice to people even if they look at you weird."  Connor tried not to laugh at Hopie's classification of the flirtation he shared with Dawn.  He smiled at the little girl, knowing that she would never intentionally hurt someone weaker than herself.  She was far too much of a hero for that.  He threw her foot backwards over her head, and Hopie tucked neatly into a back flip and landed on her feet.  She hurled her small body at Connor and knocked him to the ground, tickling him.  She sat on his chest.

            "Do you want to play?" she asked Dawn, making nice.  "Uncle Angel says Connor squeals like a girl when I tickle his ribs."  She demonstrated, and Connor did indeed squeal like a girl.  Dawn laughed and crouched down next to Connor, gently poking him in the side.  He laughed.  He felt warm to the touch, and Dawn loved the way his hair was slightly mussed from sparring with Hopie.

            "He's my Connor," Hopie said, "but I can share.  Maybe."  Dawn smiled at the little girl, internally wondering just what would have happened if Cordy and Buffy hadn't intervened in time.  The bite sized child was a formidable opponent.

            Buffy stared at Hopie, and inwardly groaned when she saw the way that Dawn was staring at Angel's son.  Buffy walked over and picked the little girl up off of Connor's chest.  Hopie snuggled for a moment, laying her head down on Buffy's chest, yawning.  Like little children do, she fell asleep instantly.  Buffy felt a little awkward holding the sleeping child and shot a look at Cordelia.

            Cordelia's heart ached watching the slayer hold her child, but she took her cue from Hopie, thinking that if the child could share, so could she.  "Don't look at me," she said.  "You're the one who picked her up, now you're stuck with her."  Buffy carried the sleeping child inside and sat down in the lobby, the little girl curling up in her lap.  Buffy thought about having children, wondering if they'd be strong like Hopie, or stubborn and good wheedlers.  Hopie breathed evenly and quietly, and Buffy felt her own heart strings pulled by the innocence of the sleeping child, no longer a warrior, but a baby who whimpered slightly in her sleep.  

            Connor looked at Dawn, thinking that she was awfully pretty, very glad that Hopie hadn't embarrassed her or gotten a little too rough.  Inside, Giles was looking at the Niazean scrolls that spoke of Angel's destiny with the Shanshu.

            "Oh dear," he said.  Angel looked at him, startled.  

              Not too far away, a good looking former Wolfram and Hart employee put his arms around the shoulder of a dark haired girl, escorting her away from the prison that had been her home for the past two years.  If Lindsey knew Wolfram and Hart, and he did, when they discovered they couldn't kidnap the Shanshu without her expressed permission, they would attempt to even the score by adding a little spice to her soul.  It would have been a simple thing to deport Faith to another dimension briefly.  They knew that the former rogue slayer had a role in the apocalypse, and it was just like them to try and use Hopie's copy machine to duplicate the former rogue's essence into the little girl, hoping that weakness that had allowed Faith to be turned would penetrate Hopie's soul.  Lindsey knew that there was only one place that Faith would be safe, and though neither one of them would be exactly welcomed, he made plans to bring her to Angel and to Hopie.  For all he knew, the Shanshu child might be Faith's only hope for redemption as well.


	8. Nigthmares

DISCLAIMER: All characters except for Hopie are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and the WB and UPN (Angel and Buffy respectively)

Author's note: What do you guys think… Angel with Buffy or Angel with Cordelia?  The question looms.  Let me know if you feel one way or the other strongly.

Only Hope: Chapter Seven

            "Oh dear," Giles said again.

            "Would you stop saying that?" Angel asked, on edge.  "What kind of oh dear are we talking about here?"

            Not too far away, Faith and Lindsey were eating dinner in a run down diner, both uncharacteristically quiet.  Faith chewed thoughtfully, her mouth welcoming the food after two years of prison gruel even as her stomach rebelled against the thought of eating at all.  It had been two years, but she knew that hatred died hard, if ever.  She couldn't exactly imagine the Sunnydale Slayer and Company welcoming her back with open arms, and now there was a complicating dimension to the situation.

            "So this kid," Faith started.

            "Hopie," Lindsey put in, and Faith thought that he was looking particularly nice.  Too bad she had sworn off her old use them and discard them policy.  Too bad she had decided that she wasn't worthy of anything else either.  Her life was just filled with too bads.

            "What kind of name is Hopie?" Faith asked.  

            "The same kind as Faithie," Lindsey said quietly, examining the slayer.  She looked dark: dark hair, dark eyes, dark shadows behind the eyes.  There was something vulnerable about her, but not childlike.  Faith hadn't been childlike even as a child.

            "I always hated being called Faithie," Faith said.  "My old man used to call me Faithie, before he took off when I was pint sized.  I guess he thought it was cute."  Faith took a swig of milk, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.  "So this Hopie, she's some sort of cosmic copy machine that's made copies of the Buff, Angel, and the popular chic?"  Lindsey nodded.

            "And Connor," he added.  "He's her favorite, from what my sources tell me."

            "What kind of sources do you have since you left the old kill-or-torture law firm?"  Lindsey didn't reply, and Faith again fell silent.  

            "Do they know we're coming?" she asked finally.  Lindsey shook his head.

            "Do you really want them to?"  he returned her question.  She shook her head.  

            Cordelia paused for a moment, seeing a teenage boy being torn apart by a female vampire.  She made mental notes of the details, and went to find Angel, figuring that he could use a break from all of the research work.  She stopped in her tracks when she heard a terrified scream.

            Buffy stared, bewildered at the small girl who was thrashing wildly in her lap.  Hopie screamed.  Buffy shook the little girl gently, trying to wake her from her deep sleeping nightmare.  Angel heard Hopie's scream and ran out of the room before Giles could so much as utter another oh dear.  Cordelia followed him at a run.  In the lobby, Buffy was having no luck waking the screaming child.  

            "No!" Hopie yelled.  "NO NO NO NO NO NO."  She thrashed wildly.  "I don't want it.  I don't want it.  You keep it.  NO!"  It took all of Buffy's slayer strength to hold the child still.

            "Wake up, Hopie," she begged.  "It's just a dream, sweetie."  Cordelia ran to the child.  Hopie continued screaming, her eyes knit shut, caught in her own private hell.

            "Hopie, baby, open your eyes," Cordy said.  "Open your eyes for Cordy, baby."  Nothing happened.  Angel took the child from Buffy, lifting her into the air and holding her tightly against his shoulder.  He put his face next to hers.

            "Hopie," he said softly and then repeated it louder.  Nothing happened.  Angel was getting worried.  He put a little mean into his voice and growled in the back of his throat.  "Hope Chase Angel," he growled at her.  Hopie's eyes flew open and she screamed when she saw Angel.  She struggled to get away from him, sobbing.

            "It's alright, baby," he said in the softest, gentlest voice any of them had ever heard.  

            "Momma," Hopie sobbed reaching for Cordy.  Cordy's eyes flew open in surprise as she took the child.  

            "Shhhh…" she shushed the child gently, holding her tight and walking with her.  Hopie buried her head in Cordy's shoulder.  

            "That must have been some dream," Willow said, having followed Giles and Angel out of the research room.  

            "It might have been a vision," Angel commented, shooting a questioning look at Cordelia.  She didn't notice, because all of her attention was wrapped up in the small, hiccupping child in her arms.  

            "Shhh, baby, it's okay."  Cordy swayed gently.  "Cordy's here.  Momma's here, baby.  Momma's here."  Hopie looked at her, her eyes brimming with tears.  She had lost her mommy a few months before, but the words she had spoken in panic were true.  Cordy was Momma now.  

            "I didn't want it," Hopie whimpered.  "They tried to make me take it but I didn't want it.  It was ugly and black and mean and I didn't want it."  Cordy murmured, thinking the girl was speaking nonsense.

            "Oh dear," said Giles.  Angel shot him a death look.  "If I'm correct, I think a significant player might have just crossed into another dimension."

            "And from the ugly and mean talk, I'm guessing this wasn't of the nice and herolike school of players?" Willow asked.  

            "I didn't take it," Hopie said stubbornly.  "I didn't want it."

            "What do you mean, baby?" Cordy asked.  Hopie shrugged.

            "That's not me," she said.  "Not like the others."  

            Giles cleaned his glasses thoughtfully.  "Perhaps she refused to allow the essence to be tied into her soul.  Perhaps her will is strong enough tied to your essences that she refused it.  She's a child, far too pure to accept complete darkness.  Of course this is all just postulation on my part."

            "Postulate away," Cordy said, holding the little girl tightly.  "But figure out something, because whoever that was trying to get into my little girl is about to get with the dead, and quickly."  Her eyes flashed.  Hopie's hand stroked Cordelia's face gently.

            "So what was the earlier series of 'oh dears' for?" Angel asked Giles.

            Giles shrugged.  "I was retranslating the pieces of the Niazean Scrolls that dealt with the Shanshu prophesies.  I'm afraid Wesley's earlier job was a bit shoddy.  You see, he overlooked the secondary calligraphic style and, well, to make a long story short, what he read as "the vampire with a soul will become human, Shanshu will return his humanity" didn't say that precisely."

            If Angel had had a heart it would have stopped beating.  "What does it say?" he asked quietly.

            "The first part says that the essence of the vampire with a soul will become human.  That has already happened.  Your essence, in Hopie, is human.  The second part is a bit more vague, but it roughly translates that that human essence will give you your humanity.  In the other translation, this seemed a bit repetitive, but with the newer one…" Giles trailed off.

            "It means that Hopie will give me humanity," Angel finished.  He looked at Giles and knew the rest.  "But that doesn't mean that I will become completely human."  Everyone was completely confused.  

            "Humanity," Giles explained, "is the set of unique qualities that make us human, say, for instance, the human soul.  A human soul has no conditions, it simply is, and no matter what mistakes are made, as long as the person retains their humanity, they retain their soul."  Buffy understood the bottom line.  Eventually, Hopie would give Angel his humanity: not a human life span, but a human soul, which nothing and no one could take away.

            "Uncle Angel was all grrrr," said Hopie quietly, looking at Angel intensely from Cordy's arms.  "He was leaving and he was grrrrr and mean and it wasn't Uncle Angel but it was him.  I didn't take it.  NO!" Hopie started screaming again in memory.  Buffy was the first to understand.

            "Angelous," she said.  "Hopie saw or felt or whatever it is she does, Angelous."

            "How could she?" Angel asked.  "I'm standing right here and look, no grrrr."  Hopie looked and believed him, despite what she had seen.

            "Then that means that somehow, someone must have been trying to trick Hopie's magic into copying Angelous into her essence.  When you went to hell, you were Angel, not Angelous.  Hopie adopted those qualities, that destiny.  Someone is trying to take that back, or at the very least neutralize it before Hopie can make good with the Shanshu-soul business."  Willow said all of this is one breath.  Understanding was slowly dawning on everyone.  

            "But how could they trick that kind of magic?" Giles asked out loud.  "It's impossible.  If Hopie hadn't refused it with the strength of her will…" his voice trailed off.  

            "Maybe they didn't trick it," Angel said.  "Maybe someone, and I'll give you two guesses as to who, managed to bring my past self here, just long enough to deport it back across time and get that side of possibility copied into Hopie as well."  

            "Only she refused it," Cordy wondered at the little girl's strength.  "Not to rain on this musing parade, but I did have a vision before.  Vamp, just after sunset, boy with the blood and ick."  Hopie nodded.

            "That's what I dreamed about before the bad dream," she said.  "That and ponies."  Hopie smiled fondly at the memory.  This kind of monster, she could handle.  "I get to go tonight," she reminded them.  "Buffy promised."  At that moment, Buffy remembered that she had.  

            "It's almost sunset," she said.  She grabbed weapons and handed Hopie a stake to put in her sleeve.  She looked the little girl straight in the eye.  "You can come, but you stay with me and you do what I say, deal?"

            Hopie nodded.  "Deal, but…" she made with the cutesy eyes.  "Can I have a crossbow too?"  Angel handed her a crossbow.  Cordelia set the squirming child down.

            "Be a good girl for Buffy and we can watch a movie when you get home," she told her.  

            "The Little Mermaid?" Hopie asked.  It was one of her favorites.  Secretly, she liked Star Wars and Rambo better, but Aunt Cordy wasn't supposed to know that Angel let her watch the fight scenes.  For once, Hopie was being a good secret keeper.

            "Sure, baby," Cordy replied smiling.

            "Momma?" Hopie asked hesitantly.

            "Yes, baby?" Cordy replied naturally.  Hopie smiled.

            "Promise you won't let Uncle Angel sing along with Ariel this time."  Everyone laughed except for Angel who ducked his head, embarrassed.

            Buffy set off with Hopie, Spike, Dawn, and Connor, the last three finally having shown up to see what all of the screaming was about.  Buffy so didn't want to know what Connor and Dawn had been doing.  

            Faith and Lindsey left the diner and headed towards the hotel, detouring slightly because Faith was ready for some slay action after her prison sabbatical.  Secretly, she was trying to delay the inevitable.  They stumbled into a nest of vamps, and it wasn't until she had already staked one that she realized that she and Lindsey weren't alone.  The time for the inevitable was now.


	9. Faithie

DISCLAIMER : Hopie's mine, but everyone else belongs to Joss and Co.

Only Hope: Chapter Eight

            "Faith!" Buffy gasped as a vampire turning to dust revealed the darker slayer standing with a man Buffy didn't recognize.  She heard little girl giggling and remembered that she was standing in the middle of a vamp nest with a four year old child.  She turned to look at Hopie in time to see her jumping up, trying to hit a vampire in the heart with a stake but too short to reach just standing.  The vampire looked mystified and annoyed.  Hopie jumped, thrust, and the vampire exploded into dust.

            "I got him!" The little girl shrieked happily.

            "Kid," a woman Hopie didn't know called.  "Behind you."  Hopie lashed out with a kick that hit the vamp at the knee with a sickening cracking sound.  The she-vampire fell to the ground in pain and Hopie staked her as well.  When she realized that both of her stakes had disappeared with the vamps, Hopie pouted.  At least she still had her crossbow.

            Faith took out three vamps in under five seconds.  She was still on her game.  Lindsey surprised her by pulling a stake out of his sleeve and throwing it with his well manicured hands, hitting a vamp bull's eye in the heart.  The remaining two vampires, faced with two slayers, a vampire, Connor, Dawn, Lindsey, and a curiously strong little girl, turned to run.  Connor took after one, and Dawn followed him, hanging on his sleeve.

            "Dawn," yelled Buffy, taking her attention from her younger charge.  Faith and Hopie both charged after the other vamp.  Connor caught the first vampire, and he and Dawn returned unharmed to Buffy who immediately realized that she had lost Hopie.  She saw the little girl's dark hair flying behind her as she ran, Faith beside her, after the vampire.  Both of them ran into the street with no regard to traffic.  Buffy took a sharp intake of breath.

            "Hopie," she yelled, knowing that the little girl couldn't hear her.  All of them ran full speed towards the two of them, knowing that a speeding semi was much likelier to take down the Shanshu and the Slayer than any single vampire.  Faith saw the little girl following her and gave up the vampire, opting instead to pick the little girl up and bring her safely out of traffic.

            Buffy's mouth dropped open.  Faith going away from a kill?  For a child she didn't even know?  It was unthinkable.  Hopie was squirming in Faith's arms.

            "Chill out, kiddo," Faith commanded.  Hopie shot her a disgruntled look.

            "I was gonna get that vamp," she told Faith crossly.  Faith put her face right next to the little girl's and whispered something that Buffy couldn't hear.  Hopie made a sad little girl face but nodded.  Faith whispered something else and the child giggled gleefully.  Buffy openly stared at the two of them, both dark haired and dark eyed, the slayer much bigger than the very tiny girl.

            "Hey Buffy," Faith said softly.  "How's tricks?"  She mentally cursed herself for not starting out right like she had wanted to.

            "How's trick?" Hopie asked giggling.  Buffy narrowed her eyes at Faith.

            "Put her down," she said.  Faith complied.  "Hopie, come here please."  Hopie felt wary at the tone in Buffy's voice.  She sounded mad, and if she was mad enough, Buffy might tell on her for running off, and then everyone would be mad.  Hopie scuffed her foot on the ground.

            Hopie took a hesitant step towards Buffy but then reached out for Faith.  "You come too," she said.  Faith took hold of her hand.

            "Let her go," Buffy said to Faith, her voice deadly and cold.

            "No," Hopie said.  Buffy gave the little girl a do-you-really-want-to-get-in-trouble-over-this look.  "No," Hopie repeated.  "This is Faith, Buffy.  Faith is good.  She kills vampires too."

            "Not everyone who kills vampires is good," Buffy said.

            "I'll second that," Spike quipped, putting his arms around Buffy.  "Maybe you should do what Buffy says, half bit."  Buffy unconsciously nuzzled Spike, and Faith's eyes flew open.  B always had had a thing for vamps, she thought, and yet, she was loved and loved like Faith never had.  

            "No, Mr. Spike," Hopie said firmly.  "Buffy is wrong.  Faith is my friend."  

Dawn rolled her eyes.  "Faith is an evil skank," she said, and Faith took the blow quietly.  Dawn had always, in her memory at least, been the one Sunnydale person who wasn't on the anti-Faith ship.  Connor looked at Dawn and trusted her immediately.

"Hopie," he said softly.  "Come away from the girl."  Hopie glared at Connor.  

"Why don't you see her?" she asked him angrily.  "You should see her, but you don't!  Stop touching Dawn's hair and look at her."  Hopie pulled Faith closer to her.  Buffy glared at the small child.

"We're going home," she said.  "Now, or I tell Cordy you ran into traffic."  Buffy knew it was a low blow, but she couldn't stand seeing the child standing next to Faith, standing like Faith, looking like Faith.

Hopie shocked everyone by bursting into tears.  Buffy was mortified, Connor was shocked, and Spike looked decidedly uncomfortable.  The only other time any of them had seen Hopie cry was after her terrifying Angelous vision, and here she was wailing in the way of small children, that look-at-me-I'm-crying cry of other, normal four year olds.  

"Hopie," Connor said, "what are you doing?"  Hopie cried louder.

"It's not fa-a-a-air," she sobbed, making fair a four syllable word like a champion whiner.  "Faith is go-oo-ood!" The little girl burst into sobs again.  Buffy gave in.

"Fine," the slayer muttered, sounding very much like a four year old herself.  She looked at Lindsey.

"Who are you?" she asked.  He grinned devilishly.

"I don't think you want to know, but I need to talk to Angel, and regardless of whether Faith is goo-oo-ood, she needs your protection."  Buffy was not a happy camper.  All of them walked toward the Hyperion in momentary silence, Hopie holding firmly onto Faith's hand.

"You ever heard of not giving in to a tantrum, B?" Faith asked.  "Kid's gonna be a brat if you give in all the time."  Buffy glared at her.  Hopie beamed at her.  Faith looked at Buffy, honestly looked at her, straight in the eyes.  Buffy looked back and didn't like what she saw: sorrow, humanity, grief.  

Spike nodded thoughtfully, thinking that perhaps Faith was right concerning the half bit.  Wasn't right to give the kid her way in everything, Spike thought in a fatherly moment, trying not to picture the children he knew he could never have: little slayers, little Spikes.  He sighed.

"Hope," he barked out.  "Come here."  Hopie shrugged and let go of Faith's hand, walking over to Spike.  Hopie looked up at Mr. Spike, who was trying to keep this weird grin off of his face.  Spike tried to harden himself against the little girl eyes, still wet from the day's tears.  It took him a moment, but he managed.  He grabbed the little girl's shoulder and said in a very serious voice, "Don't you ever run out into traffic like that again, and when Buffy or Angel or who-bloody-ever that's good tells you to do something, you do it."  He made his voice mean.  Hopie looked at him like he was a simpleton.

"Faith already told me about the street thing," she said.  "She was mad at me, too, that's how I know she's good, plus she doesn't feel grrrr to me."  Everyone had a hard time picturing Faith scolding the little girl.  

Spike tried to resume the fatherly role.  "And you don't cry to get what you want, you talk like a big girl."  Hopie looked up at him with huge saucer eyes.

"No one would listen," she replied.  Spike gave up trying, settling for shooting the little girl a look, which Connor spoiled by smiling softly at Hopie.  "And you," Spike said, turning on Angel's son.  "Get your bloody hands out of Dawn's hair if you want to keep them."

"Spi-i-ike," whined Dawn, proving herself more of a master whiner than even Hopie.  Buffy smiled at Spike for trying, and wound her arm around his stomach unabashedly.  

"Faith," Hopie whispered in that childlike whisper that really isn't even all that quiet, "did you know Buffy and Mr. Spike are special friends?"  Buffy practically choked on her tongue, and Spike let out a satisfied laugh.  Neither of them had said anything to the child about their relationship.  Faith nodded at the child seriously.

"Yeah, Hopie, I knew," she said with a straight face.  Buffy didn't hear any condemnation in her voice.  Everyone, even her closest friends, had had trouble swallowing her relationship with Spike.  She was expecting accusations, or at the least rude comments, and when she looked at Faith's face, all she saw was understanding.  

"How did you know that?" Spike asked Hopie, honestly curious.  Hopie rolled her eyes.

" 'Cause Momma and Angel are special friends and they do that fluffy look too."  When everyone looked confused, Hopie demonstrated, making her eyes go big and round.  Spike gave a masculine swagger.

"You hear that, Slayer?" he said.  "You give me fluffy eyes."

"Actually, I think the kid was talking about you," Faith clarified.  Hopie nodded vigorously.  Everyone else laughed.  

"You have fluffy eyes too," Hopie told Connor, "but I think you should stop now, because I'm not THAT good at sharing yet."  Connor straightened his face, and Dawn blushed, happy that someone was giving her fluffy eyes and that she felt equally fluffy about that person as well.  Hopie looked closely at Lindsey.

"Do I look fluffy?" he asked her seriously.  She shook her head emphatically.

"You look sad," she replied.  Faith thought that the kid was just a little nutso.  Lindsey looked many things (godlike among them), but not sad.  "Are you sad?" Hopie asked seriously.  Lindsey shrugged.

"Sometimes," he replied and then, shooting Faith a look, "sometimes not."  To everyone's great relief, Hopie closed her mouth and remained silent the rest of the way home.

When they arrived at the Hyperion, Hopie raced through the front door.  When Faith heard a growl coming from behind the door, she ran to throw herself in front of Hopie.  The child giggled.  "You didn't get me this time, Uncle Angel!" Hopie said gleefully, "but I think you got Faith!"   Faith gave Angel a steady look.

"Hello, Angel," she said quietly.  Angel looked at her and nodded solemnly.  

"Hey Faith," he said gently.  Lindsey walked through the door.  "Hello, Lindsey," Angel said.  "The funniest thing happened the other day.  Turns out Hopie has a destiny that you didn't bother to fill us in on when you helped us out with the adoption thing."  Lindsey shrugged.  Angel didn't change his relaxed position at all, but the hairs on the back of Buffy's neck started to stand on end, warning her of his anger at the man, who was obviously the ex-lawyer from Wolfram and Hart.

Cordelia swept into the room.  She took a good look at Hopie before she even saw the others in the room.  "Were you good for Buffy and Spike?" Cordy asked.  Hopie shot Buffy a hopeful look.  Buffy sighed.

"She killed two vamps and chased a third," Buffy said, omitting the fact that the chased vamp had been chased into oncoming traffic.  Faith was right: Hopie did have her wrapped around her little finger.  Cordelia's mother radar flipped on in time to catch Hopie's please-don't-tell-on-me look.

"What happened?" she asked, picking the little girl up and nuzzling her.  Hopie snuggled down in Cordy's arms.

"Well," Hopie said with the air of a great storyteller.  "Faith killed vamps and so did Buffy and Connor and Mr. Spike and me, but not Dawn, and then Faith and me chased one of them and we were bad cause we didn't look both ways with the street, but we were okay and then Buffy didn't believe me that Faith was good and then I cried and then Buffy let Faith come too, and Mr. Spike yelled at me."  Hopie took a deep breath. Cordelia was temporarily speechless.

"And," Lindsey added, "apparently Mr. Spike and Buffy are special friends, and so are Hopie's momma and her uncle Angel.  Whether or not Connor and Dawn are special friends has yet to be seen."

Angel shot his son a look.  "They sure as hell better not be," Spike said.  "Or I'm going to have to kill them both.  Slowly."  Dawn blushed violently and a little pink appeared on Connor's cheeks as well.  Hopie shot Lindsey a thankful look for distracting everyone from the street part of her story.  Cordelia hugged the little girl tightly, laughing at her definition of special friends.  She wondered exactly why it was that she was Momma and Angel was just Uncle Angel.  What did she expect, she wondered, for Hopie to call Angel Daddy?  Even Connor rarely called him Dad.

"What are you guys doing here?" Cordelia asked Lindsey and Faith finally.  "Not that I have a thing against having people who have preciously tried to kill those nearest and dearest to me in my own home, but satisfy my curiosity."

Faith looked at Lindsey, knowing that he was better in the way of explanations than she was.  

"If I know the way Lilah and the partners think, and trust me I do, the first thing they'll try to do is even the score in Hopie's conjunctive soul with a few questionable destiny deportations."  Buffy rolled her eyes.  Lindsey definitely talked like a lawyer.

"They already tried," Cordelia informed him tersely.  "She refused the essence of Angelous."  Lindsey rolled with the punches.

"Pure evil," he said, "could hypothetically be refused by strength of will.  A questionable essence, neither entirely good nor evil in itself, would present Hopie with a much harder time."  Everyone looked at Faith.  They understood now.  Already, Faith felt again like she just wasn't good enough to be part of the save-the-world-a-lot gang, L.A. and Sunnydale divisions.  

In the study, Willow, Anya, Xander, Giles, Fred, and Gunn were doing research.  More accurately, Willow, Giles, and Fred were doing research, Xander and Gunn were having a meter stick sword fight, and Anya was staring off into space blankly.  "Wow," said Willow.  "Look at this.  If you translate this script as having a Neo-classical Hindi subtext, it talks about the Shanshu, but if you don't, it predicts the building of the Microsoft Empire.  Neat."  Giles took off his glasses.

"What does it say?" he asked.  

"That the monopoly ruling won't bring down the great empire," Willow started.  Then she ducked her head sheepishly.  "You mean what does it say about Hopie.  If I'm reading this right, it speaks of a champion, a protector, who the Shanshu child will immediately recognize and claim for her own.  One person destined to protect her until she can…" Willow's voice trailed off.  "I can't tell what the rest says."  Giles took the book from her, but he failed as well.

"A champion," Fred said, "like Angel."

"But dead boy doesn't really seem to be Hopie's chosen one, just her dear old uncle," Xander commented.  There was a short pause in the room.

"If not Angel," Giles commented, "then it must be Connor."  Everyone nodded, the bond between the two coming into greater focus.  

"If Hopie's magic will give Angel a permanent soul, and Hopie has four destinies already, does she have another destiny of her own?"  Willow asked musingly.  No one had an answer.

"It's mayhaps too early to tell.  Hopie's only four, Willow, most destinies do not surface until much later.  Slayers aren't called until they are around fourteen or fifteen at the earliest.  If she's meant to be a seer or a champion or who knows what else, her own destiny will remain well hidden for some time to come."  Willow knew what Giles wasn't saying, that if she could translate the rest of the passage, they might know more about what Hopie was capable of.  

Simultaneously, Hopie was showcasing to Faith her ability to wrap everyone within a one square mile radius around her little finger.  Everyone, even Spike, who didn't much care for cartoons (he said they were too freakish, ironic coming from a demon) and Dawn and Connor, who desperately wanted some alone time, were watching The Little Mermaid.  Angel hummed under his breath.  

Faith sat next to Lindsey, wanting badly to rest her head against his shoulder but pulling back from human contact.  Hopie was sitting in Cordelia's lap, wide awake and enjoying the show.  Dawn wound her hand through Connor's while he played with her hair with the other hand.  Buffy leaned her head against Spike's shoulder, knowing that he too knew what it was like to long to be part of another world.  

"Momma," Hopie said, looking at all of the couples surrounding her, "how long until I can have a special friend, too?" 

"Never," Angel said.

"Not until you're twenty," Cordy said reasonably, thinking that that sounded safely distant.

Connor shot Cordy a dirty look.  "Not until I'm dead," he said.  Dawn squeezed his hand.

"Isn't that a little unreasonable?" she asked him.  Connor stared at her for a moment and then nodded.

"My Connor has fluffy eyes again!" Hopie squealed.

No, thought Dawn, my Connor has fluffy eyes.  For me.    


	10. Panther Eyes

DISCLAIMER: They don't belong to me, they belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy, and a whole score of folks at the WB/UPN.  Hopie is mine, but I'm perfectly willing to share.

DISTRIBUTION: Post it anywhere you feel like, just drop me an email to let me know and be sure I am credited with writing it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I should be studying for my Neurobiology test tomorrow, but if I try to cram one more piece of information about neurotrophic factors and hippocampal atrophy into my head, I will lose all semblance of sanity, so enjoy the story.  Thanks to all of you who review… if you didn't, I probably would have given up on Hopie and Company by now, so thanks!  I'm still taking requests if you have them.

AUTHOR'S NOTE PART TWO: The test went pretty well… now time for some celebratory writing!

Only Hope: Chapter Nine

            Willow looked up from the book, her mind floating briefly to Tara.  It was one of those moments when she could almost feel her, smell her close by.  Then again, Willow was hyperaware of the coupling off that was taking place at rampant speed in the Hyperion.  

            Spike and Buffy were quickly becoming more openly cuddly special friends, and ever since Hopie had started calling Cordy Momma, Cordelia had felt closer to Angel romantically than ever before.  They seemed, even to Willow who had known them both when they were different people, like a family.  Anya and Xander were definitely being suspiciously special friendish, even though they claimed that they weren't involved that way any more.  Fred and Gunn were clearly an item, and even Dawnie had a developing relationship with Connor.  That left Willow with approximately…

            "A whole lot of nothing," she said out loud.  Giles looked at her speculatively.  Willow closed the book.  "There's no use," she said, "I can't find any information regarding the missing section on Hopie's personal destiny, or Connor's role as her champion."  Giles looked into the young woman's face, seeing how bone tired she was.  Giles excused himself momentarily from the room.  When he returned, he had a self-satisfied look on his face.  Willow, entranced in another volume, didn't notice.

            "Willow," Cordy said, poking her head in.  "Do you think you could take Hopie for the afternoon?  I have a headache from the last vision, Angel can't go outside and neither can Spike, and Buffy is too busy playing chaperone to the teenage duo."  Of course, Cordelia was lying about the headache, but she was in total agreement with Giles that the Wicca needed to get away from the books.

            "Sure," Willow said, "but I'm not really way with the knowledge when it comes to little kids.  I've never had any around, except maybe for Xander being sorta kidlike, and that hardly counts."  Cordelia smiled at her.

            "Don't worry," she said, "I can handle Hopie and I wasn't even that good with Xander."  Giles raised his eyebrows and Cordy blushed just a bit.  "Just take her out for a little while.  Have fun, go shopping, or to the park, or wherever."  Hopie ran into the room.

            "Slow down there, fireball," Cordelia said laughingly.  Hopie obligingly came to a halting stop.  She eyed all of the pretty books on the table but didn't touch any of them.  Momma said that Mr. Giles got mad when people played with the books, and Hopie was a little scared of Mr. Giles because he was old, older even than Momma and the rest of her friends.

            Hopie tilted her head and looked at Willow.  Out of all of the people staying at the Hyperion, she had spent the least amount of time with the book crew, seeing as how they weren't really into playing battle or spar.  "What are we doing today?" she asked in a cute voice.

            "What do you want to do?" Willow asked until she got the oh-don't-ask-her-that head shake from Cordelia.  "I mean," Willow restated in her so-called authoritative voice, "we're going to the, uh… the uh, zoo."  Hopie smiled, and Willow relaxed a little bit.  What could go wrong at a zoo?  She asked herself, refusing to think about Xander's hyena situation.  

            The two of them set out, alone, leaving Cordelia behind feeling like she had just sent her baby off to the first day of school or something.  She had to get over her Hopie separation anxiety.

            "They'll be fine," Giles assured her.  "Willow is quite powerful enough to protect Hopie if she needs to, and for that matter, Hopie is quite capable of protecting Hopie.  We've been discovering the most remarkable things about her will and the power it exerts over the Shanshu-Itzca magic."  What neither Willow nor Cordelia knew was that Hopie and Willow were not alone.

            "The zoo?" Lindsey asked, wondering about Faith's sudden desire to see monkeys and snakes.  Faith nodded, not telling him that she was going to watch over Hopie from afar.  For some reason, she felt a deep seeded need to protect the child, from everyone and everything, including herself.  Lindsey put two and two together but kept quiet.  If Faith wanted to pretend that she didn't care about the child the way she did, that was her business.  Faith in general, on the other hand, was his business, and seeing that Wolfram and Hart didn't do anything to Faith to get to Hopie was quickly becoming his number one priority.

            Angel walked into the study room, and seeing the longing expression on Cordelia's face, guessed that Hopie was off with another one of her newfound friends.  "Who has the little monster?" he asked, quite aware that he would kill anyone else who dared to call his little girl a monster.  From him, it was a term of endearment.  

            "Willow," Cordelia replied running her hands softly down Angel's back.

            Angel wrinkled his forehead.  "Are you sure she can handle Hopie?  I mean Hopie's pretty strong and you know how she runs off and…"  Cordelia kissed Angel on the lips, quieting his worrying.  "I'm babbling, aren't I?" he asked when she finished.  Cordy nodded, and Angel kissed her again.  

            Giles cleared his throat, sending out the clear I'm-still-in-here message.  "You're just a worried Papa," Giles said when the twosome had stopped with the lip locking.  "And I assure you, Willow is quite capable of taking care of the little girl."

            At that very moment, Willow was thinking that taking care of Hopie wasn't so very hard.  "What animal do you want to see first?" she asked Hopie.  

            "Tigers," Hopie said decisively, "and then lions and snakes and leopards."  Willow smiled.  The child wanted to see all of the hunters.  

            "What about the monkeys?" Willow asked, as she had always been a Rhesus Monkey person herself.  Hopie shrugged.

            "Okay," she said, "but tigers first.  Please."  Under Cordelia's conditioning, Hopie's was becoming quite well mannered, aside from the whole aggressive tendencies type thing.  Then again, Connor and Angel weren't much for the non-aggression school of action, and neither was Buffy, so Hopie's little warrioresqueness was to be expected.

            Faith and Lindsey walked slowly by each of the cages, Faith thinking about her time spent in a cage, and for the matter, her time spent as an animal.  She had done so much wrong, and the burden lay heavy on her shoulders.  Lindsey, knowing deep inside what the slayer was thinking, brought his hand to massage the tension out of her neck.  Faith jumped at his touch, but settled down and allowed herself to enjoy the massage.  

            "And Hopie is a relatively well behaved child," Giles continued in his soothing voice.

            "Relatively?" Cordelia asked, insulted.

            "The whole running off thing," Giles said, smiling at the young woman's mother reflexes.  "It's a bit of a problem, but I know you all can handle it.  The impetuousness is not surprising, considering Buffy was never very good at waiting until she had been given permission to charge into battle."  Giles looked directly at Angel.  "And I seem to remember you were always skulking off without a word, mysterious and all."  

            Angel glared at him.  "I never skulked," he insisted.  Cordelia laughed.

            "Right, and you never brood either," she said, poking Angel in the ribs.  He tickled her back and she screamed with laughter until Giles again cleared his throat to reannounce his presence.  

            Willow smiled at the monkeys.  Cute little monkeys, looking straight at her.  "Aren't they neat, Hopie?" she asked.  "Look at that one, he's dancing."  Willow looked around.  "Hopie?" The little girl was gone.  Willow took a deep breath and decided not to panic.  Hopie had probably just wandered over to the tigers.

            The hairs on the back of Faith's neck stood on end, and she quickly looked away from Lindsey in time to see Hopie wandering away from Willow who was pretty darn entranced with those monkeys.  Faith silently tracked Hopie through the crowd, and moved to follow the child.  Lindsey spotted Hopie too, and wished momentarily that someone would put a leash on that child.  Faith had been about to open up, and now she was distracted again.  Lindsey sighed and followed Faith through the crowd, because he, too, was found of the little Shanshu.

            Hopie stood next to the panther exhibit, her nose on glass and her breath fogging up the display window into the panther habitat.  She watched them, silently, completely entranced in the beauty of their sleek movements.  I want to move like that, she thought.  A female panther walked up to the edge of the habitat, staring back at the child.  Hopie didn't so much as blink or make a sound.  A hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her trancelike state of fascination.

            "Hi Faith," she said brightly.  Faith knelt down next to the child, her face even with Hopie's and glared at her.  Hopie shrank back a little, recognizing the warning signs that somebody was about to yell at her.  Faith's voice was surprisingly quiet.

            "You don't wander off like that," she said.  Even though her voice was gentle, Hopie shivered.  Faith was serious and her intensity was like nothing Hopie had ever seen.  The little girl nodded seriously.  "Don't let me catch you doing it again," Faith said evenly, and after giving the little girl a quick hug, she disappeared back into the crowd just as Willow spotted Hopie.

            "Don't run off like that," Willow scolded the little girl.  "You scared me."  Hopie looked up at Willow with sad little girl eyes.

            "I'm sorry," she said.  Willow softened immediately.  She was a pushover for little sad eyes, just ask Xander.  Willow looked at the panther exhibit and noticed the panther staring at Hopie.  "Hopie," Willow said conversationally, "why is that panther staring at you?"      

            "I dunno," Hopie replied, sounding very much four years old.  "Maybe it wants to eat me."  Willow didn't think that was it.  She looked around and made a quick decision.

            The spell was a simple one, to see through someone or something else's eyes for a moment.  "Ex Erito Combun," she murmured softly.  The flash she saw was so brilliant that it knocked her to the ground, unconscious.  Hopie stared, scared, at Willow, lying on the ground, looking for all the world like she had just fallen asleep.  

            She knelt down next to her.  "Willow," she whispered, patting the older girl softly.  "I don't think this is a very good place for a nap."  

            Faith reappeared instantly on the scene.  "I don't think she's napping," Faith started to say, but Lindsey cut her off.  "Willow is really tired," he said, picking the little girl up and shielding her from the truth.  Faith nodded, deciding that he was probably right on not telling the little girl that the Wicca was unconscious.  Faith knelt down beside Willow and slapped her face lightly.  Nothing happened.  Lindsey handed Hopie to Faith and bent over Willow.

            "Levantan," he said softly.  Willow opened her eyes.  Faith's eyes opened widely.  "I have a few tricks up my sleeve," he replied, shooting the slayer a look chocked full of flirty goodness.  Hopie wiggled in Faith's arms, wanted to examine Lindsey's sleeves and see if Willow was all right.  

            "What happened?" Faith asked gently, holding firmly onto the squirming child.  "Cut it out with the wiggling, Hopie" she instructed, and Hopie obediently settled into Faith's arms, snuggling against her to get comfortable.

            "I saw Hopie's magic," Willow replied.  "It's like us, all of us, we're wearing magical sunglasses that shield our eyes from it, but that panther could see it, sense it.  It's so old and bright and powerful.  I've never felt power like that before."  Hopie shrugged, completely uninterested in the grownup talk, which she thought was pretty boring.  

            Faith looked at the little girl in her arms, feeling the call to protect her once more.  "All of that, in this little thing?" she asked.  Willow nodded.  Lindsey decided that he liked the way Faith looked holding a child.  

            Boring, thought Hopie.  Why are grown ups so boring?

            Why, thought Cordelia, is Giles so incredibly boring?  Now he had Cordy and Angel looking through books.  Cordelia couldn't take it anymore and got up to leave.      

"Visions? Yes.  Shopping? Yes.  Fighting? Occasionally.  Book work?  A world of no," she said by way of explanation, leaving the room in search of a better distraction.  She found Spike muttering to himself.

            "Stupid bloody teenage hormone time bombs," he muttered.  

            "Spike, you aren't crazy again, are you?" Cordy asked.  "Because you're not making a whole lot with the sense."  Spike tilted his head towards the doorway to another room, from which Cordelia could hear the sound of a teenage girl giggling.  She smiled knowingly, part of her whispering inside that she had held the boy-man for whom that giggle was meant when he had been just a baby.  In many ways, he was hers just as Hopie was.  

            Cordelia stood outside the door silently.  "Sickening, isn't it?" Spike asked.  "Angel Junior obsessed with Bitty Buffy and if he touches her, I will…" he trailed off as Buffy came into the room and gave him a we've-already-had-this-discussion look.  "Stand here out of their way because they're responsible teenagers and they deserve a little bit of privacy," Spike finished, noting the slayer's warning look.  He sighed.  Bloody hell, he thought.

            Anya and Xander followed Buffy into the room.  They too heard the giggle.  "Is that a dirty giggle?" Anya asked, curious.

            "No!" said Cordelia and Buffy emphatically.

            "It sure as hell better not be," Spike growled.  

            "Anya," Xander started, then stopped, deciding it wasn't worth the effort to explain the concept of tact to Anya another time.

            "Oh yeah," they heard Dawn taunt, "let's just see how tough you are, _Steven!"  _

Buffy was confused.  

            "Whatever you say, _Gidget__," responded Connor.  By this time everyone was confused._

            "Steven?" asked Buffy.

            "Maybe they're role playing," said Anya.  Everyone ignored her.

            "Connor's first name in the other dimension," Cordelia explained.  "Gidget?"

            "The Bit's first name," Spike explained as if he hadn't only recently discovered that interesting tidbit himself.  "Gidget Dawn Summers."  Cordelia was confused, but she figured that if her name was Gidget, she'd go by Dawn too.

            "Would you like to call me Gidget during special happy time?" Anya asked Xander.  Xander went all googly eyed for a minute.  Buffy glared at him.

            "Ew," she said.  "Just ew.  We're talking about my little sister's first name here.  It may be stupid, but it's still her name."  No one was brave enough to comment on the lack of sophistication of the name Buffy.  

            "Gidget Dawn Summers," Lilah Morgan said out loud, pacing the conference room as she talked to he subordinates.  "What kind of name is Gidget?" she asked, before dismissing the question.  "Never mind.  The bottom line is to get Hope we need Connor, and to get Connor, we need bait.  From what I can see of her personal history, this girl should consider bait as a profession."  Everyone looked at Lilah, and she thought about how much she loved being in charge.  "Hence, Operation Gidget.  Get the girl, keep your lives.  Everyone understand?"  Not surprisingly, everyone did.  

            Lilah thought that her plan was perfect.  After all, Connor would be so entranced with the slayer's little sister that he would forget all about his duty to champion the Shanshu.  She, in turn, would allow herself to be captured if it would save Connor, and Lilah was certain, for once, that she could take care of Angel.

            The only thing Lilah didn't know was the very thing Willow had just discovered in looking at Hopie's magic.  "I saw Angel and Connor and Cordy and Buffy and Hopie all at once, but none of them were as bright as the magic, not even Hopie."  Her complete memory of what she had seen was returning, and she gasped.

            "What?" said Lindsey, putting his had on Faith's shoulder as she held the still-bored child.  

            "I saw Hopie's champion, the magic pointed the way, and it's not Connor."  Willow stared at Faith, disbelieving.  "It's you."

Author's note Three (sorry for so many notes):  If the Gidget reference confuses you, read chapter one or two of my humor-fic The Rubidium Desire.  I am personally convinced that no one would name their first child Buffy and their second child Dawn, besides, I figured Connor could use a name to tease Dawn with when she called him Steven.     


	11. Baby eyes and false visions

DISCLAIMER: Joss and his many affiliates own everyone except for Hopie.  I own Hopie, as much as anyone can.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please keep reviewing… it's the only reason I'm still writing this fic.  Let me know what you like, don't like, want to see more of, anything!  

Only Hope: Chapter Ten

            Angel sneaked out of the study, ready for a break himself, figuring that Cordy would be more than glad for some co-slacker company.  Part of him wasn't too surprised that she was in the midst of a huge crowd; something about that woman was absolutely magnetic.  

            "What's going on?" he asked.  Such a casual phrase sounded a little odd coming from his mouth, but by this time, no one in the group was surprised.  Brood boy had become a little less with the brooding and a little more with the making of fluffy eyes at his very special friend.

            "Connor and Dawn are role playing," Anya replied seriously.  Angel lifted his eyebrows.

            "Is that a good idea?" he asked, fairly sure that current social protocol meant it wasn't a good idea for teenagers of the opposite sex to be involved with something so… well, it just wasn't a good idea.

            Spike shot his sire a disgusted look.  "It sure as hell isn't a good idea, Sunshine," he said, half sarcastically, half the worried Papa.  "If your son touches one hair on her head…"

            "Connor, that tickles!"  Spike shuddered at the shout from the next room.  He looked pleadingly at Buffy.  She nodded her consent.

            "Fine," she said.  "Go ahead and break up the love fest.  It's just about dinner time anyway."  Spike triumphantly entered the room, shooting Connor a do-you-want-me-to-eat you look which Connor promptly ignored.

            "What's for dinner?" Angel asked.

            "How about pizza?" Cordelia replied, in a tone that made it very clear that she wasn't about to cook for the entire crew.  Lindsey came into the room, carrying a tired out Willow, and Faith followed him carrying a very energetic Hopie.

            "Willow," Xander said, alarmed, "are you all right?"  Willow nodded.

            "A spell took a little something out of  me," she replied weakly.  "No big deal."

            Xander, as well as the rest of the room, had figured out that the quickest way to get the most information was to coax it out of the high energy little girl.  "Hopie?" he said, knowing that that was all it would take.

            "Well," she said, enjoying her height in Faith's arms, "we were looking at the monkeys, but that was boring, so I went to look at the hunter-animals 'cause they're really cool, and Faith found me and got all grumpy and then she disappeared and Willow came and she asked why the panther was staring at me, and I told her maybe it wanted to eat me, but it didn't, and Willow said some funny words and then she was lying on the ground and all of you are wearing magical sunglasses."  The little girl took a deep breath.  

            "Anyone else think the small person is not making much sense?" Anya asked.  Hopie stuck out her tongue at her.

            "Hopie," Cordelia chided, "that's not very nice."  Anya stuck her tongue out at Hopie.

            "Anya," Xander chided, "that's not very nice."  But somehow I like it, he thought silently.

            "Willow cast an unveiling spell to see Hopie for the panther's eyes.  She saw her magic, the weaving of her essences, and she also saw…" Lindsey stopped, figuring that Willow deserved to announce her discovery herself.

            Giles came running into the room, excited with his discovery.  "You all will never believe it, but I found the missing scripts and…"

            "Faith is Hopie's champion," Willow said quietly.  Everyone in the group stared at her amazed, except for Giles who looked vastly disappointed.

            "Well, yes," he said.  Looking very much like Hopie, he scuffed his foot against the ground.  "I was going to tell them that."  Buffy and Cordelia were both equal parts astounded and unnerved.  Faith, Miss Now Repenting of Trying to Kill You All, was Hopie's protector, the one person who was prophesized to make sure that the Shanshu stayed alive and well until she could fulfill her destinies, or until the destinies had been fulfilled by their original bearers.  

            Buffy stared at Faith holding the child, who looked perfectly content to be sitting in the former rogue slayer's arms.  Somehow, Faith looked natural, as if her entire life had been built up to the moments when she would hold this child, this tiny miracle warrior.

            "Faith," Hopie said, "why are they looking at you with coupon eyes?"  Faith stared at the child.

            "Coupon eyes?" she asked, knowing that the mind of a four year old was a little something like a Where's Waldo puzzle where Waldo kept moving around.

            "Like they can't believe you're on sale,"  Hopie explained.  "Like when Momma sees a dress and she can't believe it's on sale or that she has a clearance coupon or can buy one get one free."  Cordy couldn't help but proudly think that the child was a fast learner, even as everyone else laughed at the fact that her child was so well versed in normative shopping procedures.

            "Faith!" Hopie said, impatient to get an answer.

            "They can't believe that I'm supposed to watch over you," Faith explained to the child, telling herself that she couldn't expect anything else.  Lindsey sat Willow down on the couch and positioned himself next to Faith, clearly stating his allegiance to the girl.  Angel remained happily clueless about the Faith-Lindsey dynamic.  In fact, the only person in the room aware of their mutual interests was Hopie, who they had both carefully sworn to secrecy when she began talking about their fluffy eyes.  Faith was a little confused about Hopie's ability to read people's eyes, but she figured if the eyes were the window to the soul and Hopie was a Soul Kinkos, then maybe she could navigate the emotions of the eyes more than a normal four year old.

            "Everyone watches over me," Hopie said, sounding quite put out.  Angel smiled at the child.

            "Why is that a bad thing?" he asked, knowing that the child was just waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the weapons chest or run after the bad guys without telling anyone.  Hopie shrugged, having picked it up from Dawn and Connor, who both practiced shrugging religiously when they didn't want to answer questions.

            Cordelia's mother radar finally turned on once she got over the shock of learning that she had to share Hopie with Faith in a way she had never imagined: when it came down to the wire, Faith would be Hopie's last line of protection, even though Cordelia would give her life in an instant for her daughter.  "Why did Faith get grumpy with you?" she asked the child.  Hopie shrugged, and Cordelia directed her question at Willow.

            "What happened, Willow?  Did Hopie do the whole running off thing again?"  Willow didn't want to tell on the child, but she wasn't exactly a master of deception.  Hopie buried her head in Faith's shoulder, refusing to look Cordelia in the eye.  Giles shot Cordelia a what-did-I-say-about-the-skulking-influence look.  Faith spoke up.

            "She knows not to do it again," Faith said, knowing that she would deal with the child herself if there was a next time.

            "She knew not to do it this time," Cordelia said sternly.  Buffy carefully kept the smile off of her face.  It was important, she thought, to present a united front to the child.  Angel carefully took Hopie from Faith's arms, and Faith took a step back, acknowledging that though Hopie was her charge, she wasn't her mother.  Hopie tried to avoid looking Angel in the face.  He sat her down on the ground and knelt to look her in the face.

            "You know not to run off," he said, wishing that Giles had never pointed out his own running off tendencies.  The child came by it naturally.  Was it right to strip her of it?  Hopie nodded in response to Angel's question.  

            "But," she started, stopping at a look from Cordelia.  "I'm sorry."  Angel's instinct was to instantly forgive the child, he was after all, a very forgiving father as testified in his dealings with Connor, but Cordelia shook her head.  If Angel had been breathing, he would have sighed.  

            "When you do something you know you're not supposed to do," he said, "it means you get in trouble."  Hopie stared at him with big baby girl eyes, and he had to think of Wolfram & Hart, always anxious to circumvent protective measures and take the child, to keep from giving into the little girl cuteness that was Hopie.  

            He picked up Hopie and sat her in a chair far away from everyone else.  "Don't move," he said, and Hopie had the immediate desire to squirm, but decided wisely against it.  Angel returned to the group and was rewarded with a Good-Job-Daddy look from Cordelia.  

            With Hopie out of earshot, Angel muttered, "Why does she have to be so cute?  It's so hard to stay mad at her."  Cordelia chuckled, loving that Angel was a softy.  She rubbed her hand on his back soothingly.  

            "You did such a good job," she said sexily, "that I'll order the pizza."  Angel smiled, glad that Cordelia hadn't mentioned his secret phone phobia to everyone.  It wasn't using the phone itself, it was just that calling a restaurant always freaked him out.

            Faith leaned into Lindsey, thinking for the first time that she wouldn't mind having kids of her own, knowing that she didn't and would never deserve them.  She didn't even deserve Hopie, but The Powers that Be had given her that much anyway.

            Willow sat up, feeling better.  "Did you find out anything else?" she asked Giles.

            "Well, yes," he said, waiting for someone to interrupt him.  No one did.  "The champion protects the Shanshu child until all of the destinies, including her own, are fulfilled.  Hopie's destiny, independent of the ones she has of you people, is coincidentally enough, tied to Connor's, which she now possesses as well.  The prophesy said that the Shanshu child will give Angel his permanent soul and then grow to one day fight alongside her soul-sibling, that the two of them would develop a bond so close it extended past this realm."

            "What does that mean?" Cordelia asked bluntly, remembering her first vision of Hopie and Connor together and the way they had been together ever since.  Connor was her big brother, and a doting big brother at that.  It was adorable to see him soften for the child, to see her so eager to please the older boy she adored beyond all reason.  

            "It's vague," Giles started.

            "Imagine that," Buffy interrupted, "a vague prophesy.  We've never seen one of those before." Giles shot her a look that made her feel four years old.

            "All I can say for sure is that Hopie and Connor are connected independently of the Shanshu magic, that they will one day fight together, and that their bond will grow to be very strong."  

            At that moment, Spike was wishing that he had never come to break up the teenage fun time between Dawn and Connor, because he hadn't really managed to break it up at all.  Instead, they were being exceedingly polite to him in conversation, but kept exchanging private looks and giggles.  Worse yet, Connor wasn't the least bit intimidated by the peroxide tinted vampire.  Spike groaned out loud.  Dawn and Connor ignored him.

            The surveillance team outside the Hyperion was becoming quickly intensely bored.  They had already informed Lilah of Faith's presence as well as Lindsey's, and they were waiting for a moment to catch the bait-girl.  Personally, the reconnaissance team wasn't sure that one little girl could possibly be worth all of this effort.

            Cordelia stuck her head into the room Dawn, Connor, and Spike were annoying each other in, deciding to give the vampire a break.  "Hey Dawn," she said, "why don't you go with Xander and Gunn to pick up the pizza."  Dawn wanted to refuse, but she also wanted to make sure that Connor's family liked her.

            "Sure," she said, leaving the room after casting one last look at Connor.  He smiled back, shy now that Cordelia was watching.  

            "Momma," Cordelia heard a call come from the other room.  She left, forgetting that she was leaving Connor alone with a very miffed vampire with protective paternal feelings.  

            Cordelia approached Hopie, knowing that she shouldn't let the little girl off easily.  She put her hands on her hips, "Yes?" she asked.  Hopie looked up at her with serious eyes.

            "I have to go to the bathroom," Hopie whispered, not wanting everyone else to hear.  Cordelia took pity on the child.

            "Go ahead," she said.  "When you get back, we'll talk."  Hopie groaned, knowing quite well that Cordelia's talks didn't translate into fun stuff for her.  Xander, Gunn, and Dawn left for the pizza, none of them particularly wanting to leave their special friends.  Wolfram & Hart trailed them away from the hotel, waiting to pounce.

            Spike tackled Connor, and sat on his chest, trying to put some fear in the boy.  Connor was laughing at him, moments away from fighting back nonetheless.

            Hopie was washing her hands when the vision hit her.  She calmly sat down on the ground even as Cordelia relayed the message to the others.  

            "Guys," she said.  "We have a problem."

            "What?" Angel asked her.

            Hopie came running into the room.  "What was that?" she asked Cordelia calmly.

            "That," Cordelia replied, "was The Initiative killing Spike."  Everyone looked at her and gasped.  The subject of her vision sat calmly in the next room, trying to instill in Angel's son the virtues of not taking advantage of impressionable young girls.

            Hopie frowned.  Mr. Spike hadn't been in her vision.    

            Lilah Morgan thanked the warlock and paid him royally.  He was doubled over in pain, the consequence of interfering with a powerful vision.  He didn't tell her that he had felt the true vision being rerouted.  With any luck, no one would listen to the little girl, leaving the opening for Connor to come alone for Dawn and for Hopie to come willingly to Connor.

            Their time was short.  According to their analysts, the time of the revamping, no pun intended, of Angel's soul was nigh.  It was beginning.        


	12. The Champion's Kiss

DISCLAIMER: All of the characters contained within with the exception of Hopie are property of Joss Whedon, 20th Century Fox, The WB, UPN and some other people who aren't me.  No infringement is meant and no profit is being gained through the writing of this story.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Getting closer to the end of the story… please keep the reviews coming, I love you guys!  Also, be thinking what you want in the way of a sequel.  Hopie going to kindergarten?  Faith and Lindsey moving in together?  I have a new character all in store for the sequel, but first… a few more chapters of Only Hope.

Only Hope: Chapter 11

            Xander and Gunn were lying unconscious on the sidewalk, the result of a very accurate dart gun complete with extra strong sedative action.  Dawn tried to scream, but even after so much experience at it, she found her mouth covered before she could get out a sound.  She felt a needle being punched into her arm, and everything went very slowly black.  From the last bits of her consciousness, she felt Hopie watching, somehow, somewhere.

            Everyone in the Hyperion stood silent at Cordelia's announcement.  The Initiative in Los Angelos?  Killing Spike?  Buffy shuddered at the thought of losing him, realizing again how much he had come to mean to her.  Angel frowned at the thought of a group of Captain Cardboards taking over his town, and Cordelia sat dumbfounded, realizing that a lone tear had escaped her eye when she had seen Spike killed.  He was growing on her, on all of them.

            Hopie stared up at the adults, wondering what was wrong with them and why they didn't realize that no initia-whatchamacallit was going to hurt Mr. Spike.  Mr. Spike was fine.  Dawn was the one in trouble.  Hopie frowned for a moment, thinking that in some way it was her fault.  She had been wishing that Dawn would go and leave her Connor alone.  Maybe it was her fault that the bad people had gotten Dawn.  Maybe she shouldn't say anything or everybody would get mad at her and yell at her and make her sit by herself again.  Maybe they wouldn't want her anymore if they knew that Dawn was in trouble because of Hopie.  Hopie kept silent, looking at the ground.

            "We have to do something," Buffy said, intensely.  Angel nodded.

            "What do we do?" asked Willow.

            "We patrol," Buffy answered.  "We find the Initiative boys, and we make it very clear that they don't belong here."  Angel sat his hand on Buffy's shoulder.

            "We patrol," he confirmed, his support of Buffy's relationship with Spike taking everyone by surprise.  

            "Did someone say patrol?" Connor asked.  Angel nodded.

            "Well let's go get some action," Spike said.  The group stared at him silently.  "Who died?" he asked.  They stared at him a little longer.  No dummy, Spike got the message.  "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed.  "I died?  Or I mean I die?  The big dust and poof, no more Spike."  Cordelia nodded.  Knowing there was no love lost between Spike and the Initiative, Buffy wisely did not relay all of Cordelia's vision to Spike.

            "You stay here," Angel said, braced for an argument.  In a strange, twisted, I-sired-someone-who-sired-you way, Spike was family, and he would do what he had to in order to protect the only other souled vampire in existence, even if he had to protect Spike from himself.  "Connor will stay with you," Angel continued, shooting Connor a look that made it clear that there was no room for argument.  Angel trusted his son to take care of any army types who decided invading their home was a good idea.  Connor nodded.  He noticed that Hopie was moping.

            "You can stay with me and Spike, Hopie-girl," he said, hoping to lift the child's spirits.  "We can play battle or spar or whatever you want."  Hopie looked at Connor with sad eyes.  Cordelia, knowing her baby was in good hands with Connor, started passing out weapons.  The rest of the group split up and left the hotel, leaving Hopie, Connor, and Spike alone.  

            Once outside the hotel, Faith stopped.  "I'm not going," she said.  "I'm staying with Hopie."  Lindsey moved his body close to hers.

            "I'll stay with you," he offered.  Old Faith would have refused his offer, knowing that she didn't deserve help or company or a budding romance, but deep inside, Faith felt like she was going to need Lindsey's help.  She nodded.  Faith and Lindsey walked back into the hotel, hand in hand, the slayer looking tiny next to Lindsey's well built frame.  

            "What's the matter, half bit?" Spike asked the child amiably.  He didn't care what the vision girl said, he had no intention of dying, and it was killing him that the child was looking so much so with the little puppy dog eyes.  Hopie just stared at him.

            "Are you sad because you think something bad is going to happen to Spike?" Connor asked, giving the little girl a hug.  She shook her head.

            "Oh no, Connor," she replied.  "Mr. Spike will be just fine."  Spike beamed at the little girl, touched by how sure she was that he could survive.  The three of them turned to look at Faith and Lindsey when they came back into the room.  Spike lifted his eyebrows when he noticed the way the slayer looked at the taller man: like he was her everything.  As for Lindsey, even the way he held Faith's hand shouted his growing love for her.  Strangely, the two who had for so long been denied love were finding it together.  Even Hopie smiled briefly.

            "You guys have fluffy eyes," she said, delighted.  She decided that she'd kinda like an Uncle Lindsey and that Faith might make a good Aunt Faith, some of the time at least.

            "So what do you want to do, kiddo?" Faith asked.  Hopie's face fell.  She wasn't supposed to be having fun.  Dawn was in trouble, and when everyone found out, they were going to be mad at her.  Lindsey was the first to recognize the look on Hopie's face as guilt.

            "Hopie," he said gently.  Hopie hid her head.  He gently lifted her chin with his hands.  "Is there something we should know?"  Hopie nodded.  Connor realized what was going on.

            "Did you do something bad, Hopie?" he asked.  She nodded somberly. 

            Spike sat down in a chair and motioned to the child.  "Come sit with Spike and tell me all about it," he said.  "I've done lots of bad stuff, so I understand how bad it feels."  

            "I didn't mean to," Hopie said.  "I don't even know how it happened, but I think it's my fault that they got her because she was making me mad with her Connor fluffy eyes."  Connor snapped to attention.

            "Dawn?" he asked tersely.  Hopie nodded.

            "They took her and Momma didn't see, but I did and I was scared to tell, and she's so scared and we have to help her and it's my fault they took her because I let them but I didn't mean to, I promise."  Hopie's breath hitched.  She was trying very bravely not to cry.

            "Who took Dawn?" Spike asked, carefully not letting any frustrated tone into his voice.  The poor child was tearing herself apart.

            "The bad lady's friends," Hopie replied.  No one understood what she was saying.  "She feels bad and it takes away the pretty and she pretends it doesn't make her feel bad but it does."  Lindsey actually understood the child.

            "Lilah," he said.  "She's talking about Lilah.  Wolfram & Hart has Dawn, but why would they want her?"

            Spike cleared his throat.  "She is, well she used to be, this Key to other dimensions."  Lindsey nodded, something not striking him as right.  In an instant, Connor had weapons in each hand, a determined expression on his face.  Spike weaponed up as well.  Hopie walked over and calmly started picking up crossbows and swords, even though all of the swords were bigger than she was.  Faith stopped the child, placing her arm on Hopie's.

            "You have to stay here," Faith said.  Hopie nodded.  She had known everyone would be mad at her.  Now they didn't want her to come with them.  "It's not like that," Faith said, hugging the little girl tightly.  "It's not your fault," Faith said.  "I promise, and you know I wouldn't lie to you, Hopie.  You're staying here because I have this feeling in my stomach that says that what those bastar- uh, what those jerks really want is you."  Faith looked at Connor.

            "Be careful," she said.  

            "You aren't coming?" Spike asked.  Faith shook her head.

            "I'm staying with Hopie," she replied.  The little girl gave a half smile.  She was still worried about Dawn.

            Lindsey smiled at Faith, loving the way she looked next to the child.  "I'm going," he said to her softly.  "If you want to break into Wolfram & Hart, you're going to need me."  Lindsey neatly picked up a sword, swinging it with expertise.  Faith's eyes glowed as she watched him.  He walked over to her, and pressed a gentle, sweet kiss against her mouth.  Faith felt connected to him on a level that was more than physical.  In fact, the physical had practically nothing to do with what she felt, though she wasn't complaining.

            "Take care," she instructed.  He nodded, and Connor, Spike, and Lindsey headed out.

            After they left, Hopie and Faith sat silently in the Hyperion.  Hopie climbed into Faith's lap and put her hands around the slayer's neck.  

            Cordelia, Angel, and Giles were having absolutely no luck locating the Initiative.  "Those military guys are sneaky," Cordy complained.  Giles nodded.

            "My opinion exactly," he said.  "I can't imagine what they would be doing in LA of all places.  I didn't even think the Initiative still existed in aggressive form."  

            "Buffy," Willow said, her voice dropping to a whisper.  They were patrolling outside of a pizza restaurant.

            "What is it?" Buffy asked, coming around the corner.  Willow pointed.

            "It's Xander," she replied, "and Gunn."  The two men were still unconscious.  Fred rushed to Gunn's side, trying to wake him up.  Anya walked up to Xander and ceremonially slapped his face.  Both men woke up slowly.

            "Dawn," Xander gasped.  "They got Dawn."  Gunn nodded.

            "Wolfram and Hart," he explained.  "They took her."  Buffy's protective instinct kicked in, and she knew that she would have to do a little causing of pain for a certain illegitimate law firm.  Xander rubbed his cheek.

            "How come Fred wakes Gunn up with kisses, and you wake me up by slapping me?" he asked Anya.  She shrugged.

            "It seemed like the right thing to do," she replied.  "I will kiss you later, and maybe hit you again too."  Xander got a dreamy expression on his face, which everyone else pointedly ignored.

            Hopie was getting mad.  The bad people had taken Connor's friend, his maybe-special friend, and they had stolen her momma's vision and they did it all in a way that made her feel like she had done something wrong.

            "NO!" Hopie said loudly.  "You can't do that!"  The little girl stomped her foot.  Faith stood back and watched the child's temper tantrum, amazed.  She figured the child needed to let off some steam.

            "You leave me alone!  You give my momma back her vision!"  Hopie stomped both feet.  "NOW!  Give it to her now.  RIGTH NOW!"  The child was screaming, looking for all of the world like a normal four year old throwing a tantrum about wanting candy or not wanting a bath.  "I want Momma to see it now. NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW."  

            On the other side of town, the true vision hit Cordelia.  "Dawn," she gasped.  "Those W&H scum took Dawn and sent me a bad vision."  Angel rubbed the tip of his knife.

            "I think it's time that I had a little chat with them," he said.  They changed course and headed for Wolfram and Hart headquarters.  

            Lilah Morgan listened to the reports from her underlings and smiled.  Things were going almost according to plan.  They would get Connor, and as long as Hopie thought they had Connor, she would come willingly.  "Send in the Hyperion team," she instructed.  The special services team would convince the child, even if they had to promise to kill Connor if she didn't come.

            The hairs on the back of Faith's neck stood on end.  Someone was coming.

            "They feel bad," Hopie said, echoing Faith's sentiments.  They each grabbed as many weapons as the could hold.  The two of them were alone, the Shanshu and her Champion, against the forces of evil.  

            "Hopie," Faith said, not questioning how she knew.  "No matter what they say, you have to tell them no."  Hopie nodded.  The front door to the hotel opened, just as the three groups of warriors converged on Wolfram and Hart.


	13. The Beginning

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters except for Hopie, everyone else belongs to Joss Whedon.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's wrap up time for this fic! LAST CHAPTER.   Please take the time to review and let me know what you thought and if you guys would read a sequel.  Thanks to everyone for reviewing, and Imzadi thanks for the advice… all I can say is be patient (I love being cryptic…hehehe I'm evil that way).

            Connor and Spike threw anyone who dared to come into their path aside with the ease of rage.  Buffy was on their heels.  Between the three of them, the seething anger was almost tangible, and most of the Wolfram and Hart staff was smart enough not to try to stop them, especially with the rest of the crew backing them up.

            It didn't occur to any of them until it was too late that things were going way too easily, such was their outrage.

            The recovery group W&H had sent in for Hopie was a motley crew.  The Shepora demon was large, green, and mysteriously dusty, intimidating nonetheless.  Several vampires practically drooled at the thought of getting a tasty nibble of the Shanshu child, since the executives had conveniently forgotten to mention that they could not bite the child unless she willingly gave up the protection of her magic.

            The creepiest member of the group, by far, was Gavin, who was itching to successfully obtain the child and somehow use her to discredit Lilah.  Hopie eyed them all warily, and Faith braced for a fight.

            "Now, now," said Gavin, "we didn't come here for a fight.  We came for a party.  Would you like to come to a party, Hopie?" he asked nicely.

            Hopie spat at him.

            "Now, now, Hopie," Faith said, "it's not nice to spit at people."

            "But he feels all evil," Hopie whined, "and empty.  If I can't hit him with my sword, can't I at least spit at him?"  Faith considered it for a moment.

            "What the heck," she said, shooting Gavin a killer look, "knock yourself out."

            "The rogue slayer, a family gal," Gavin mused.  "Playing house with Lindsey and the child, Faith?"  Faith didn't take the bait.

            "Uncle Lindsey is nice," Hopie said in Lindsey's defense.  "And my Aunt Faith can kick your butt.  So can I.  Can I say butt?" Hopie asked Faith, scrunching her forehead up in worry.  Faith nodded.

            "As long as you don't say it around Cordelia and tell her I let you say it," Faith responded, smiling at the fact that her position had been upgraded from Faith to Aunt Faith.

            "There's no need for violence, Hope," Gavin started.

            "Hopie," the Shanshu and her Champion both corrected automatically.

            "We just want to have a little talk."  Faith threw a sword at the demon, and Hopie shot two of the vampires in the heart with her crossbow.  The other six vamps converged on the two warriors, one the pint sized mirror of the other.

            Hopie hid a broad sword that was far heavier than she was behind her back.  She crooked her little finger at one of the remaining vamps.  He approached her, oblivious to the danger despite the fact that the child had just killed two of his friends.  When he stood in front of the child she whispered "Come down here, I have a secret to tell you."  The idiot vamp shrugged and bent down, and Hopie made quick work of decapitating him.  

            Faith took out two vamps with the same stake in under a second.  She had never felt a rush like this before.  She wasn't just slaying, she was protecting: a child she loved and the future the child held in safe keeping for the entire world.  Adrenaline didn't begin to describe it.  Pure purpose was flowing through Faith's veins, and she knew that this was what she was born to do.  She was The Champion.

            Lilah sat, talking to a very miffed Dawn, who was tied to a chair.  "Why don't you just tattoo 'bait' on your forehead?  Honestly, sweetie, you're just too easy to kidnap.  Did you ever consider, you know, not being so pathetic?  Look at you, you're shaking in your boots right now."  

            "I'm not scared of you," Dawn said, glaring back at Lilah.  "Glory was scarier.  And prettier.  And less skanky, even though I didn't really think that was possible."

            "Teenagers," Lilah said.  "They can't take a little constructive criticism."

            Two vampires ran at Hopie, and she jumped into the air, splitting her legs far apart and kicking both of them with an incredible force.  After knocking them to the ground, Hopie was satisfied to see that both vamps were well within staking range.  She couldn't wait until she was tall enough to stake vamps while they were standing up without jumping.  It would make things so much easier.

            Humming while she worked, the child staked the first vamp and then danced over to the second in that little-kid-jumping-up-and-down-with-excitement kind of way.  She delicately thrust the stake into the second vamps heart before he even realized that she was standing over him.  

            Faith, finishing the others, walked up to Gavin.  "We don't like to talk," she said in way of explanation.

            "I like to fight," Hopie said, "but I'm not allowed to hurt people who are weaker than I am."  Hopie pouted.  Gavin breathed a sigh of relief.

            "I am," Faith replied, punching him hard in the stomach.

            The door to Lilah's office burst open while she was talking on the phone.  "Send in everyone we've got," she said as she saw the forces of good entering her office en masse.  "Hello," she said conversationally.  "I suppose you'll be wanting this back."  Lilah gestured to Dawn.  Dawn harrumphed.

            "Something's not right," Cordelia said worriedly.

            Connor walked up to Lilah and carefully slammed her into her desk, his hands around her throat.  Angel put his hand on his sons shoulder.  "Let her go," he said after a moment.  "We don't kill humans, although we may eventually make Miss Morgan here an exception."  After a tense moment of silence, Connor unhanded Lilah and went to embrace Dawn.

            Buffy slammed Lilah down on the desk in exactly the same way Connor had.  "If you mess with my little sister again," she said, "you're going to wish that I let Angel handle things for me."  Spike put his hand on Buffy's shoulder after a moment.

            "Not to criticize, pet," he said, "but the lawyer lady here is turning kind of purple."  Buffy released Lilah, who started gasping for air.  She tried not to smile.  She was going to get what she wanted, and nothing any of them did could stop it.

            A vast army of W&H employees surrounded the Hyperion in numbers so large that even the combined forces of the Shanshu and the rogue slayer could not stop them.  "Are you feeling chatty now?" Gavin asked smugly.  He turned to Hopie.  "Would you like to come with me now, Hopie?"  The child shook her head.

            "If you don't," he said, "Connor will die.  So will Faith.  So will everyone, and all because you let us kidnap Dawn."

            "It's not my fault!" shouted Hopie.  "Faith said so."  Gavin knew the Shanshu lore.  In the child's biggest moment of need, her biggest test, only her champion could save her, and Connor wasn't there.  He could taste victory.

            "Hopie," Cordy gasped.  "They're going after Hopie.  They'll try to use Connor if they have to.  They'll use us all."

            Lilah clapped.  "Congratulations, Captain Obvious," she said smugly.  "You get the gold star.  By the time you get back to the hotel, the kid will have given in, and without Connor dearest there to cheer her on, she will be ours.  All those destinies, right in the palm of our hand.  Victory is so sweet."  Cordelia punched Lilah.

            "You stay away from my daughter," she said.  Lindsey looked at Lilah, thinking about how pathetic she was.  Lilah recognized the smile.  He knew something she didn't.

            The Wolfram and Hart emissaries grabbed Faith, bringing a knife to her throat.  Hopie screamed.  "Be brave, Hopie," Faith instructed.  "Be brave, kiddo.  Say no."

            "Will you join us, Hopie?" Gavin asked.

            "No," Hopie whimpered.  

            "Louder," Faith screamed, willing the words to Hopie after someone covered her mouth.  

            "NO!" Hopie screamed.  Gavin signaled the man holding Faith to begin cutting her.

            "Slowly," Gavin instructed.  "I want Hopie to hear her screaming." 

            Lindsey walked over to Lilah and slammed her down into the desk.  "What can I say," he said.  "It looked like fun.  Plus you have to pay for making my girlfriend bleed."  

            "Don't you mean die?" Lilah gasped, tauntingly.

            "Oh, she won't die," Lindsey said confidently.  "You know as well as I do the power of the Champion's blood."  Lilah's face contorted in horror.  Faith was the Champion.  The oversight would cost them and cost them dearly.

            A stream of blood dripped from Faith's neck, but she refused to take the silly smile from her face.  She wouldn't worry the child.  Just say no, she told her mentally.

            "NO!" Hopie screamed.  As Faith's blood hit the ground, Hopie's entire demeanor changed.  "No," she said calmly, and the universe shook with the power of her will, amplified magically by the blood of the Champion.  A wave of light radiated out from the child, and the W&H warriors began to disappear until only a few of the most demonic and least susceptible to magic were left standing in the hotel.

            Lilah saw a bright flash, and every one else in her office disappeared.  They reappeared instantly by Hopie's side.

            "I was hoping you'd come," Hopie told them seriously.  "I wanted it real bad."

            Gavin looked around.  After a moment of silence, a quick but fierce fight broke out between the Fang and Scoobie gangs and the remaining demons.  Angel swung a sword, killing three demons at once.  Cordelia ran to Hopie.  Connor took Dawn away from the action, convinced that the others had it covered.  For the first time, he walked away from a fight, and his lips and Dawn's made contact sweetly, in that first kiss of exploration, wonder, and deep seeded emotion.

            "Are you all right, baby?" Cordelia asked Hopie, picking the child up.

            Hopie squirmed.  "I'm fine, Momma.  Can I go play now?"  Cordelia looked at the surrounding battle and sighed.  Her baby was a fighter.  She sat Hopie down, and the child joyfully picked up her crossbow and a glaive and skipped off to join the fray.

            Buffy finished off the last demon and then watched in horror as a stake came flying directly at Angel's heart.  Gavin sneaked out the side door as the stake pierced Angel's heart.

            Hopie saw what was happening.  She shook her head.  "No," she whispered.  "Not my daddy.  Not again."  As if in reverse, the stake came back out of Angel's heart, and the wound closed itself.  Hopie ran to Angel.  He was fine.

            "Up, Daddy," she commanded, lifting her arms toward him.  Angel, a tear in his eye lifted the child who had held off those words for so long.  He had considered her his daughter ever since before she had started referring to Cordy as Momma, and now, finally, he was Daddy.  He hugged Hopie.

            "You're a pretty amazing kid," he said.  Hopie snuggled happily, in a good mood from all of the excitement.

            Faith ran to Lindsey, who literally swept her off of her feet into a hug.  She lifted her mouth to his, and the two of them kissed, softly at first, and then passionately with a fire made of hope, faith, and love.  Cordy approached Angel, and the two of them kissed over Hopie's head, the child looking on in fascination.  All around her, couples exploded into passionate embraces.  

            After a moment, Hopie became bored.  "I know something you don't know," she sang.  Everyone reluctantly stopped kissing.  Lorne's eyes opened widely as he listened to the child's innocent, high, and clear singing voice.  

            "Angel Cakes," Lorne said.  "I think congratulations are in order."  

            "For what?" Angel asked.

            "For…" 

Hopie cut Lorne off.  "Shanshu!" she cried joyously, throwing her arms up in the air, like a little kid who managed to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve.  Angel looked amazed.

"Meaning," he said slowly, "that my soul is mine now, no conditions, no curse?"  Lorne nodded.

"That's not all it means," he said.  "Apparently Hopie thought Daddy should be able to look in the mirror and play outside sometimes."

"The sun doesn't affect me?" Angel asked joyously.

"Now that doesn't seem fair," Spike said.

"Sorry, Angel-Bear.  Even Hopie couldn't work a full relief, but if it's the day of a full moon night, you have temporary protection," Lorne said, revealing the last bit of information he had gleaned from Hopie's rendition of 'I know something you don't know.'      

            "Well, that's a little better," Spike said.  He saw Dawn kissing Connor again.  "Bloody hell," he said, going to break them off.  Cordelia, Angel, and Hopie quietly left the room.  A moment later, they stood in front of a mirror in the bathroom.

            There they were, all of them, in the mirror in front of them.  They were a family: mother, father, and child, miracle child.  Connor silently crept into the bathroom, having been pushed away from Dawn by Spike.  Angel put his arm around his son, and then the Destroyer carefully pressed a kiss to his soul-sister's forehead.  They were destined to fight side by side, but today, they were just family.

            "Ew," Hopie said, breaking the wonder of the moment, "you just kissed Dawn with those lips.  You're still my Connor, but she can have the lips, 'cause that's just gross."

            Cordy laughed.  "You won't always think it's gross," she said.

            "Yes you will," Angel and Connor both commanded.  Like father, like son, and if it were up to them, Hopie would stay a warrior baby forever.

            Not far away, the Champion felt Hopie's happiness in her heart, and felt herself crushed to Lindsey's chest in a tight embrace.  "We'll have that, too," he whispered.  "Some day."

            "Promise?" Faith asked.  Lindsey nodded.  In many ways, everything was just beginning.

OKAY… yay! That's the end of this one, people, but I'm already working on a sequel.  Just to give you a sneak preview… Hopie's going to kindergarten, Connor takes Dawn on a midnight roller coaster ride, Angel spends a day outside with his family for the first time, Faith and Lindsey keep an eye on Wolfram and Hart, and Lilah and Wesley come into the picture as Wes gets a visitor from England in the form of his twelve year old sister.  Look for it coming soon, entitled Le Bella.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!!!!!!!


End file.
